Daphne's Light
by Therashae
Summary: In which the dragon slayer Lucy meets in Hargeon is not Natsu. Follow Lucy, Cobra, and his family as they discover just how Lucy's light effects their lives. Continuation of CoLu Week 2018 prompts pilot, staff, and dance.
1. Chapter 1 Daphne

**CoLu Week Day 6: Pilot**

The **Pilot** : the first

A **Pilot** : an individual guiding

To **Pilot** : to guide

 **XxXxXxXxX**

He really fucking hated coming into town like this. To start with Cubelios couldn't come with him. She caused wide spread panic and drew way to much attention. She was his constant companion and he hated being without her. Then there was the noise. Constant, overlapping, earbleeding noise. Even suppressing his magic as much as he could only blocked out most of it. He still heard anyone close enough to touch and of course everything everybody else heard only louder. He hated it.

Today was a little different since his trip into town was voluntary. Rumors said Salamander, the fire dragon slayer, was in town. He could care less about the wizard himself, but he wanted, no he needed the information he could glean from the man about the magic they shared. Dragon slaying magic wasn't just magic. It changed who and what you were. He had instincts driving him to do things he couldn't anticipate and needed to understand in order to deal with them and control his own fucking self.

 _...how dare he ...oh bubbles ...then she didn't ...apples and chicken ...I need to hurry or ...how pretty ...why didn't I think ...wish it was ...he's holding my hand ...so help me ..._

If these stupid fucking people would all shut up and stop thinking that would be great. It's not like any of them were thinking anything important. Petty shit all of it. No-one even had anything interresting to think, so it was petty _and_ boring.

 _Fuck that shit!_

Well... That was less boring. He reached out with his magic for the female mind.

 _You have no idea what I went through for this money you over ripe apricot! 20,000 jewel my ass! Which got groped on my last job. Groped! Fuck you very much dad! He doesn't even do anything! 20,000 jewel and all he does is dance a little and look cute. If I'm gunna get treated like that anyway I might as well put it to good use._

The mind kept jumping back and forth between topics like a yoyo. He caught her description of the old 'apricot' she was talking to, some stupid punk grabbing at her ass while she waited tables, and some stuck up rich geazer who was apparently her father. Why was she waiting tables if her family was that rich? Then there was the mental imaginings of a 'doggy' that he was pretty sure would actually look like a snowman. Then she started flirting with Apricot.

"How much is it really worth? Surely you can cut me a deal?" _There. You can look all the way down my shirt. Lots to see in there. That should knock off a few thousand. Plus the sexy voice, a couple more thousand. Look in my eyes Apricot. That's right. Big brown doe eyes. Guys always fall for that. And cue wink. I shouldn't have to pay more than 10,000 tops._

The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk. Oh, he liked her. She had a lot of fight in her. Not a positive opinion of men or their self control, but a lot of fight. He would have stayed outside the little magic shop and listened longer, but a scream of "Salamander!" called his attention to the reason he was here in the first place and he walked away.

He took his time approaching. This was a powerful light guild mage. It wouldn't do for him to be seen or recognized. He also circled around so he would be downwind. As a dragon slayer Salamander would have advanced olfactory senses. The hint of dragon in his scent would draw his attention in a way he didn't want.

He kept his eyes on the crowd and sniffed the air. No dragonlike smell. He could smell dozens of different florals, fruits, and perfumes from what looked to be a predominantly female crowd, but no dragon. There was fire, but it wasn't the kind of fire he was expecting. Not as pure or powerful, not even smokey, it was more of ...chemical fire smell. It burned his nose. He reached out and listened, carefully sorting through the throng of girls proclaiming their undying love for the wizard he was looking for. There. Found him.

"I am Salamander. It is so nice to meet you ladies." His lip curled up in a sneer. Salamander's voice sounded as fake as his fire smelled. He listened harder, trying to focus through the noise around the wizard. _So simple. Use the name of a famous wizard to draw a crown, a simple charm spell and the ladies fall all over themselves to get to me._

Well that was just great. Days of bargaining with Brain, hours of being in this noisy as fuck town, and all he got was a fucking fake as shit Salamander. No wonder he smelled and sounded fake. He was. This was such a huge load of bullshit.

He turned away with a growl that had people near him shying away, only to stop two steps later. It was her, the girl from earlier. He heard her. Only... This wasn't her. It wasn't right. It was her voice, but the bite and fight he had admired earlier was just ...gone.

 _Why is my heart beating so fast? What's gotten into me all of a sudden? He looked at me!_

No way in hell was this right. Something was wrong with her. The fake was using a 'charm spell' right? She must have gotten caught in it. It was taking her free will from her. Fuck that shit. Not while he was around was this asshole dulling that kitten's claws. He focused on her thoughts as he walked toward the crown.

 _Is it cuz he's a famous wizard? Is that why my heart's throbbing out of control? Could it be?_ There she was. Bright blond hair and a tiny blue miniskirt. He approved. Charm spells broke when you knew about them right?

 _Am I in love? Is he the one?_ Fuck no you aren't, and hell no he isn't. He leaned down so his shoulder touched hers and he was close enough to whisper in her ear. Wow. She smelled good. Like daphne flowers. It suited her.

"Charm spell meet Daphne. Daphne, charm spell." He heard the spell break in her mind. Like shattering glass. For a long moment he heard nothing from her but the echo of his words. Then the sexy kitten from earlier came back when a feral growl ran through her mind. Now that was better.

 _Why that no good, low down, filthy, dirty, rotton... Ya know what? You aren't even worthy of being a pile of shit. A fecal smear, that's what you are. Fuck you!_

Finally she turned to look at him with a sweet, sunny, dandelion smile. Beautiful and innocent. She had big brown doe eyes just like she had thought earlier. Her voice was bright and cheery when she spoke. He liked it, but it was hilarious considering what was going through her head.

"Hi there!" _Holy panties! Hello sexy. Stars, your eyes are beautiful! I've never seen hair such a rich color before. I wonder how weird it would be for me to ask to touch it?_ "I'm Lucy." _I don't know who you are or where you came from, but we can absolutely be friends._ "Thanks for helping me out. That was a totally sleazy thing for that guy to do." _Stupid Fecal Smear. Eh, it got he here so I guess I'm not complaining._

"Erik." For a second he felt like he had slapped himself. Why did he give her his real name? "It was my pleasure." It really was. A beautiful, dangerous flower like her should be free to do and feel whatever she wanted. She shouldn't be forced to bend her will to anyone.

"Let me treat you to lunch as a thank you?" _Come on sexy. You're a guy. Guys never turn down food. And I'd really like it if you stuck around for a little while_

"Sure." He never turned down food. She was right about that. It was a little more complex than just because he was male though. Years of starving in the Tower of Hell followed by the lacrima messing with his metabolism, and his everything else, made food a precious commodity. "I'm not picky, so I'll enjoy whatever you feed me, Daphne." Though if he was honest she was sounding more delicious than anything else he could think of. Even more so when he listened in on her reaction to his name for her.

 _Daphne? Shit. He thinks I'm someone else. Damn it! He is so sexy and sweet too. Like caramel. Actually his skin looks kinda like caramel. I wonder... Shut up Slut Lucy!_ "Umm... My name is Lucy."

"I heard you. Daphne suits you." If she got brave enough to ask out loud he would absolutley let her taste him.

"Oh." _He's giving me a nickname? Holy Panties! Isn't that a flower?_ "Wanna tell me why you think I'm a Daphne?" _At least I'm not a sunshine. I get so tired of that one. How unorigional can you be?_

"Daphne flowers are complex, beautiful, and deadly poisonous." He grinned at her for a moment, earning the approval of her inner monologue. "They also smell delicious."

 _Does that mean he thinks I smell ...delicious? Beautiful and deadly huh? I wouldn't call me deadly. My magic isn't that strong._

A doorbell echoed in her head followed by a ...cow? The doorbell was familiar, and a glance down confirmed it. She had gate keys. She was a celestial spirit wizard, like Angel. The cow must be one of her spirits. That explained the snowman dog from earlier. Celestial spirits were all weird and none of them were what they should have been. The cow was probably from the giraffe constelation or something stupid like that. He did catch the glint of gold. Angel was always going on about her Zodiac keys. They were supposed to be powerful and extremely rare.

A chill ran down his spine when he saw the whip hanging from her belt. How had he not seen it before? Surely she wasn't like that? He hadn't caught that dark sadistic tone inner thoughts. Just independance. She was a kitten. She had claws to protect herself not...

"Carry your kinks with you, Daphne?" It took everything he had to keep his voice even. To his surprise she blushed. He would have appreciated it more if it wasn't for the torture device she was carrying. He listened carefully to her thoughts as she spoke.

"It's not like that." _Shit. Not him too. Why does everybody think that?_ "I'm a wizard. My magic uses keys, these keys," She touched her keys and smiled this weird soft smile. "to summon spirits from the celestial world." He knew how celestial spirit magic worked. He wanted her to skip to the part where she explained the fucking whip. He couldn't hear any memories of anger or even of hurting anyone. Not yet at least.

He was hearing doorbells and the cow again, along with some sort of music. "Some celestial wizards use their spirits as shields." He had seen Angel do that. "I don't." _I wouldn't even need to carry this if I were a guy. I could just punch shit._ He heard some guy calling her baby and, finally, someone screaming, no it was yelling, and it wasn't her. It was one of her spirits. Aquarius. Lucy was appologising for bothering her. There was still no whip.

"My spirits are my friends. My family." _Look it has a heart on the end. How cute. Way to think ahead Lucy._ His eyes flicked down. Yep. There is was. The whip had a heart shaped tip. It was a barb really, but for someone who didn't know better He guessed it could be a heart.

"I fight beside my spirits." He almost flinched when he heard the crack of a whip in her memory, then the sound of her own voice joined it. _How dare you! Only the worst kind of cowardly scum hits a child! Open, Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!_ He heard the cow again.

"It takes time and space to call a spirit. I don't have the physical strength to use most traditional weapons. The whip is something to give me that space that doesn't require brute strength. Plus I had access to it when I was young." _Stupid asshole stablemaster. I got his sadistic shithead self fired so fucking fast. That poor horse._

Wow. That was... nothing he had expected and nothing he would have imagined, quite possibly everything he could have hoped. She had taken a weapon used against the defenseless and now used it to protect those she cared about. He still felt jumpy and skittish being so close to something that had caused him so much pain and left so many scars, but he was ok with it. Really it was poetically suiting for his Daphne to weild a whip.

"Umm..." _Why do I feel so awkward? Why is he looking at me like that?_ "You like Stellan food?" She gestured at a nearby cafe.

"Daphne."

"Y-yeah, Erik?" Huh, he liked her using his real name.

"You are special." She rolled her eyes. _So special._ Voices echoed in her head. _Crazy. Stupid. Loco Lady. You're super kinky aren't ya girly._ "Not that kind of special. You are an exotic flower willing to grow in common soil in order to share your beauty." He tapped her nose as she starred at him with wide eyes. "Don't change." He walked into the Stellan cafe and heard her follow.

 _Special like an exotic flower huh? Where does he get this shit? I mean it's super sweet and all, but it's not like did something special. I just explained how my magic works. I'm definitely not complaining. A girl doesn't get compliments from a guy that hot every day, and I have a feeling this specific guy doesn't give many out at all._

That would be the understatement of the decade if she said it out loud. He _never_ said anything even remotely nice about _anybody_. What exactly made her special enough to change that he wasn't exactly sure yet. Of course the fact that her first thought when she saw him was 'Holy panties' probably helped. Those big brown eyes she already knew were a male weakness definatley helped.

"So. You're a wizard." He said, sliding into a bench and trying to relax as well as keep his focus on suppressing his magic both at the same time. She sat across from him.

"Yeah, but I haven't joined a guild yet or anything." _Makes me only half a wizard. I should probably explain what that means and why it's important._ Yeah, how about we nip that one in the bud and not.

"You have a specific one in mind? You get in with the wrong crowd it can cause a whole mess of problems." Lamia Scale was the closest. Maybe that was why she was in town. She wasn't local. She started fangirl squealing in her head. He was willing to bet that was a yes on whether she had a specific guild in mind.

"Fairy Tail." Her eyes lit up. _They are the absolute greatest!_ "I hear it's really tough to get in though because they are the most popular guild there is." _They have some really powerful wizards. I'd be so outclassed. I doubt I could get in any time soon._ "They are always featured in Sorcerer Weekly." _One of their wizards practically leveled a whole town last week going after bandits. Talk about power, but overkill much?_

He had heard about that. Those 'bandits' had actually been a minor dark guild working under _his_ guild and Brain had been furious. He was actually glad to see them go, because they had been a pain in the ass to deal with. Idiots the lot of them, which was why the wizardry magazine had only labeled them as bandits.

"If I could actually convince them to let me in I think I'd just about die!" _Fat chance of that, but I'm going to be aggressively positive about this._ "I'm telling you, I'm definately going to join Fairy Tail some day."

Just being the best didnt seem like a good enough reason for her to choose one guild over another. She wasn't shallow like that. He would have pressed her for more, but she silently answered without even knowing he was looking for more.

 _Nobody ever tells Fairy Tail what to do. Even the Council can't control them. I wanna be free like that someday. Free enough I don't have to hide. Fuck you dad! Fuck your empty house and your stupid corsets and your pointless rules. You can fuck your chauvinistic marriage contracts with that damn railway you love so much. I'm going to be a wizard and a good one. I'm going to be free._

Freedom. He could understand that. This dad of hers had chained her with ribbons and lace to a Tower built of gold. A prettier cage than his had been, but still a cage. Her only way out had been a new cage, just like his had been. She had found a loophole though and escaped. She was free. He hoped she stayed that way. He hoped that someday she could be, as she had said, free enough she didn't have to hide.

"Fairy Tail is a growing guild. Most guilds aren't likely to turn away new members. If they are then they probably aren't the crowd you belong in anyway. Don't jump strait in though. Go to Magnolia. Talk to their wizards and their master. Make sure it's what you want before you decide for sure."

"You know them?" _Holy fucking shitballs on a cheesy cracker!_ That was hard not to react to. The stuff this girl thought sometimes was off the wall crazy. He liked it. _I'm so stupid!_ "You're a wizard aren't you?" _Maybe a green mage? Plant magic would explain why he keeps bringing up flowers._

"I am. I have magically enhanced hearing and poison magic." Brain would flip shit if he knew that he was telling her that, but that jackass could suck his dick. He toed the line pretty damn close most of the time. _Poison. That explains the flowers. It's amazing how dangerous a lot of that shit is if you do more than admire it from a distance._

"So are you part of a guild? Which one?" No matter how much he liked his Daphne he wasn't going to give her the answer to that question. Even more So _because_ he liked her, he wasn't going to put her in danger like that.

"Remember what I said about the wrong crowd and problems? You _need_ to not know about my problems. I'm a bishop in a game I never wanted to play. I'd rather you didn't become a pawn." _O_ _h, Erik. You're so sweet though._ Yeah, no he wasn't. _Just shows what one bad decision can cost you I guess. I hope you can fix your problems. Or escape them like I did._ Shit. If he knew how to hope he would be hoping for the same thing. "Tell me about your spirits?"

 _Don't want to talk about it huh? Ok. I can understand that._ She gave him a sad smile and began to talk about her spirits. They were her magic, her friends, her family, her life. She shared that with him, holding nothing back.

It was nice while it lasted. They ate and talked. For a while he felt almost human. It hurt to watch her walk away, but he couldn't keep her. She needed sunlight to grow and be happy, and he would be dragged back to the shadows wether he liked it or not.

He thought of his friends, his family, as he waited for Cubelios to finish swimming and smell him out. They needed him. He wasn't mentally sound by any means, but without him there his sister and his brothers would finally lose themselves. Angel would lose the fight to keep living. Racer would finally go insane from his simple inability to outrun his problems. Hoteye would give up on his brother, and after that himself. Midnight, he would lose the last of his will to Brain.

They would suffer with his absence. And they would suffer because of his absence. That was how Brain controlled them. Step out of line and someone else gets hurt. They had been through enough in the Tower and in their early years as the Six Demons that threats against them directly held little weight anymore.

He heard the ripples Cubelios caused as she swam towards him. He smiled. He had missed her company while he was in town. He wondered if she would have liked Daphne. Of course she would have. Though most people were afraid of the huge snake, Daphne, he was sure, would have gotten over it quickly if she was afraid at all. Cubelios raised her big purple head up from the water to look him in the eye where he crouched. He ran a hand along the ridge over her eye.

"Did you have a nice swim?" She flicked her tongue at him. "Catch anything good?" Two tongue flicks. So she ate very well, or at least had fun with her hunt. "You'll never guess what I did today." Her head tipped back and forth. Snakes couldn't roll their eyes, but if they could she would have. "I actually met someone I liked." She jerked her head back to express her shock. "I know right? Her name was Lucy, but she seemed like more than that to me so I'm calling her Daphne. It's what she smells like anyway. Not that I'll ever see her again to call her anything." She flicked her tongue in the air searching for a scent. "My shoulder touched her. You might still catch a scent on my jacket." He shifted so that the shoulder in question was closer to his friend, who flicked her tongue out and tipped her nose up to express her pleasure.

"So the Salamander thing was a fake. Literally, the guy was pretending to be Salamander to get attention or something. It was stupid. Brain will be pissed if we come back without something good. We'll have to find something useful to take with us when we go back." She hissed in displeasure at the idea of returning to their guild. "I know but..."

A far to familiar scream of rage echoed in his ears. No one else would hear it, but he did. His kitten's internal war cry against those who would harm the innocent. _How fucking dare you! I won't let you take those girls! Filthy slaver scum. I should have turned you into the authorities earlier when Erik caught you using that charm spell._

He growled aloud as he looked over the water. Slavers. In Hargeon. He shouldn't get involved. He knew he shouldn't, and she was a mage. She would be alright. She would deal with it. Then her scream of rage changed into a wail of despair. It was silent, but he heard it.

 _No! My keys! Give them back! How could I be stupid enough as to leave my whip behind? Don't throw them! Nooo! Aquarius! Taurus! Cancer! Don't go! Lyra! Horologium! Grampa Crux! How could you!_

"Daphne..." With her keys gone, without her whip at hand she was defenseless. "Cubelios, I have to get on that boat." Long hours of practice saw him landing on her back with balanced precision. She could fly, but with her already in the water she could swim faster. "She's a celestial wizard. They took her keys and threw them overboard. Once you get me on that boat go try to find them." He let his claws form and channeled poison to them as they sliced through the water.

"You use magic to take advantage of others! You're the worst wizard alive!"Actually he could think of a few who were probably worse: Brain, Hades, that psycho Zancrow, Phantom Lord's master Jose, but he got where she was coming from and approved of her attitude.

Cubelios lept up, and he used her as a springboard for his own jump us onto the boat and right through the wall into the room where he could still hear Daphne fuming. The buffoons froze in shock at his dramatic entrance. Daphne only experienced a moment of surprise before she lit up. _Erik! I'm so fucking happy to see you right now!_

"Hey you! I thought you were leaving town."

"Well that was the plan, but..." He shrugged. "What are you doing out here, Kitten?"

"This sleaze," She glared and pointed at the fake Salamander. "promised to get me into Fairy Tail if I came to his stupid yacht party." He snorted. Figures.

"He's not who he says he is. Not a Fairy Tail wizard and definately not the Salamander. I didn't expect you to run into him again or I would have warned you. Actually it's my bad for not listening better earlier and hearing what he was really up to." He was listening now. _Say what now? It's not like he was going to admit this was a trap right there in front of his prey._

"You doubt my greatness! I am the Salamander! The most..." He was absolutely not going to keep listening to this.

"You are Bora of Prominence." He pointed a single, poison dripping claw at the man's face. "The Salamander is a dragon slayer, and he would eat you for breakfast. It's just your luck I'm the one who tracked you down. From what I hear of him he wouldn't care much what you said about him, but dragging his guild's name through the dirt is a ticket straight to the hospital, if not the morgue. I'd have called it good luck, because I don't care whose name you use, or how dirty you get it..." He grined at the scum bag in front of him and was privately thrilled to hear Daphne's reaction. _Wow that's sexy. "_ Accept you turned that good luck real bad. Wrong town, wrong day, wrong profession. Definitely the wrong girl. Should gave kept yourself out of trouble and stayed with Titan's Nose."

The crew of this rotten boat was bordering on terrified and he hadn't even done anything yet. Knowledge always frightened stupid people. Some of those who had been running in seedier circles for longer were trying to figure out why he looked so familiar. He heard Cubelios slither up the side of the yacht. The slight jingle that accompanied her told him she had found his Kitten's keys.

The scum backed up with gasps of terror when his friend came in through the hole he had made. One of them even pissed his pants. He sneered at them. Stupid cowards. Daphne was, as expected, startled, but she figured out how things were pretty quick.

 _Shit that's a big snake. Are those my gate keys? Thank the stars. I thought I would never see them again. If it has my keys and the crew is terrified... Is the snake the friend Erik was leaving town to meet? I didn't know you could be friends with a snake. I didn't know they got that big either though. Yeah. Its head is on his shoulder and he is petting it, so that makes the snake an ally._

As soon as it became apparent that Cubelios was with him a large portion of the rabble before him realized who he was, starting with Bora. _Shit that's Cobra... We're all going to die... Fuck Bora. He fucking tried to kidnap fucking Cobra's girl!... What the hell are the Oracion Seis doing in Hargeon?... I don't wanna die today... Shit!_ One of the idiots hit his knees and started begging.

"Please! We're sorry! We didn't know who she was! We don't want any tr..." A quick step got him close enough for a boot to the chin to knock the man out. He was about to talk about his guild. Cobra he may be now, but he didn't want Daphne seeing him that way. With her he was Erik, and he liked it that way.

"Cubelios this is Daphne. Daphne this is my best friend Cubelios. She understands us, even though she can't speak." _She? His best friend is a snake. Ok. I'm about to have a one sided conversation with a snake. This is new._

"It's nice to meet you, Cubelios." The snake tipped her head up to express her pleasure, which he understood even if the person she was pleased to meet didn't, and offered the retreived gate keys on the tip of her tail. "Oh, my keys! Thank you so much. I was so afraid I wouldn't be able to find them. My mother gave me most of my keys. They mean a lot to me." He heard the memories in her mind. Her mother was dead. These keys were all she had left of her.

Cubelios nudged his shoulder to get his attention. "What?" She gently turned him around to look out through the hole they had come in through. A couple wizards thought about going after him while he had his back turned, but he looked back and grinned at them. "Only if you want to die. I can hear you." They backed off and he turned back to what Cubelios was trying to show him. The shore was... to far away. "Huh. You're right. We need to get this chunk of rotton wood back to the harbor."

"I can do that." _Aquarius can push us back no problem._

"Go with her, Cu. Just in case. I need to have words with these..." He curled his lip at them. "pathetic creatures." One of the creatures fainted. The rest were white as death as they backed away from Daphne and Cubelios. Once his girls were out of the room he let the full force of her rage show in his eyes. Poisonous fumes were escaping from between his clenched teeth.

"You know the Seis have never tolerated slave trade in our territory. Out of respect for Daphne's ...sensibilities you get to live today. Try to rip the freedom from _anyone, ever_ again and we will find you. You will die slowly. Do you understand? In fact I suggest you make it a point to remind others of that policy lest I be reminded of this day when I'm in less forgiving company."

There were nods and cringes and whimpers across the room. He fixed his eyes on Bora and growled, releasing enough toxic fumes to knock them all out. He braced himself in his makeshift doorway just before the wave from Daphne's overly bitchy mermaid spirit hit the yacht. He wasn't worried about her. Cubelios would keep her safe. She knew going in that she would likely get half drowned anyway.

He listened closely to the authorities as they marched across town. He managed to dodge them as he helped Cubelios pull his half drowned kitten from the bay. The originator of the tsunami wave was wanted for questioning, so he helped her sneak through town to get her things and then helped her sneak back out. He heard several of the slave trading scumbags being taken into custody. Enough of them escaped capture to spread the word of his wrath over today's events.

"You are a trouble magnet aren't you, Daphne." It was a statement, not a question. She blushed. This time he could enjoy it even with her whip strapped to her hip. "Cubelios and I will walk with you the rest of the way to Magnolia. Just to make sure you get there safe."

"I didn't ask for any of what happened today. It was really only one long incident anyway. Bora the Predominantly Retarded only hunted me down because you helped me escape his trap the first time. Which..." She narrowed her eyes at him. "How did you know I was in trouble?"

"Spell charms are easy to spot if you know what to look for."

"I wasn't referring to the first time when I was standing in the middle of town. I was referring to the second time when I was on a boat in the middle of the bay and you came smashing through a wall." He heard that, but was hoping he wouldn't have to explain it. He didn't want her uncomfortable around him.

"I know stuff."

"You don't just _know_ stuff. You know _stuff._ How?" He sighed. He heard the difference.

"I only know stuff because I hear it. I heard you. You were in a spot so..." He shrugged.

"Oh." If he had been someone else he wouldn't have heard her thinking back over the day and he would have thought the conversation was over. "So what, exactly, do you hear? Magically enhanced hearing is actually a kinda vague description now that I think about it."

"You're really smart, Kitten. It's one of the reasons I like you, but curiosity killed the cat, and it's going to get you in trouble."

"So knowing about your magic is dangerous?"

"Knowing anything about me is dangerous. You are the first person to call me by my real name in years."

"Your real name? As opposed to the name you go by?" He nodded. _Why doesn't he use his real name? And why give it to me if he doesn't use it? And why only give me one of his names. Does that mean knowing his real name is dangerous? Or that knowing him by the name he goes by is dangerous. Why is his name dangerous? If knowing about him is dangerous does that mean he is dangerous? Shit he is! That's why those assholes on the yacht were acting so weird. They knew him. Or... No. They knew the name he goes by. The dangerous part. That's why they were so afraid. Whatever his other name is it is attatched to whatever his 'problems' are. Meaning... His real name is his real self... Or something. Is that a trust thing?_

"I like being me with you. It's nice." _Wow. It's almost like he could hear my thoughts._ Because he could, but he wasn't telling her that yet. Maybe later.

"Ok, so knowing to much about you is dangerous. What can I know?" Not a whole fucking lot. She already knew enough to make her a target.

"How about we swap questions. You answer as much as you are comfortable with." He was so cheating here. He would hear the whole answer even if she didn't speak it aloud. "And I will give you all the answers I feel are safe. I want you to understand though. I'm sharing with _you,_ not Tom, Dick, Bob, Sally, Sue, and Sue's skanky cousin."

"Personal shit. Got it. Ok. Can I go first?"

"Sure. Why the hell not?"

"What kind of snake is Cubelios?" A laugh burst its way out of his chest. That really wasn't a personal question. _Holy panties. His laugh is even sexy._ Damn this girl was good for his ego. Cubelios tipped her head up, pleased that she was important enough to their new friend that her first question was about her.

"Honestly all I know about her is that she is magical and very poisonous. I was a kid when I found her, and she was just a tiny little thing. No bigger around than my thumb at the time."

They talked as they walked, late into the night. Cubelios could see in the dark, as could he, so Daphne just trusted them to keep her safe. Stories were told about her spirits. His poison dragon slaying magic was explained, since she had seen his claws on the boat. He wouldn't tell her where he learned it, and she was sworn to complete silence especially where Fairy Tail's fire dragon slayer was concerned. He told her all the stories he could remember hearing about her prospective new guild and encouraged her to make friends with the Titania, who from what he heard was crazy protective and Daphne needed that.

When her feet just couldn't keep walking the three of them curled up in a ball and slept by the side of the road. He was shockingly ok with her touching him and she was shocked herself at how ok she was with being tucked against a practically strange man in the middle of nowhere at night. They slept only until the warmth of the sun roused Cubelios. He foraged for their breakfast as they walked. He ate everything poisonous and she ate everything that wasn't.

The rush from breakfast made him a little more talkative than usual during the next couple hours, during which the subject of family was brought up. She talked fondly of her mother, and he told her strait up that her dad was a bag full of dicks. He told her that his 'uncle', because he refused to call Brain his father even if Midnight did, was an even bigger bag of dicks and if she ever met the man she should run. He then refused to give her any way to identify the man she was supposed to be running from.

"I think those red berries from that last bush made you a little loopy. You sure you are ok?"

"It's just a good poison high. Don't worry about me, Kitten."

"You get high off of poison?"

"Only if there is a lot and I'm not using my magic or anything like that. Once we went past a bakery on apple pie day right before they tossed out the cores for the day. Did you know apple seeds have cyanide in them? I pigged out so bad. Then when the poison hit I got crazy goofy. I don't remember it because I kinda blacked out, but Sorano still has blackmail pictures stuffed somewhere." He wasn't so high that he would use the names they carried these days. Or maybe he was so high he was just remembering them as the kids they used to be.

"Who is Sorano?"

"My sister."

"You have a sister."

"No. Well I do, but she isn't really my sister."

"So like an adopted sister?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have any brothers? Either kind?"

"Three. Richard has a real brother, but we can't find him."

"How did you... lose him?"

"We didn't. Richard was stolen from him."

"Stolen? Erik, did this uncle of yours kidnap you from your families?"

"No." He stopped walking and hid his face in her golden hair. She still smelled really good. "The Tower of Hell did." _Oh my stars..._ "I really don't want to talk about it, Kitten."

"Ok. That's ok. How about we talk about your other brothers? You said you had three. Richard is only one. Who are the others?"

"Sawyer and Macbeth. You would be good for them, Daphne." He pulled his face from her hair so he could look in her eyes. "You could show Richard that money won't fix the world's problems, teach Sawyer how to stand up for himself instead of running, make Macbeth laugh. I haven't heard him laugh in a really long time. I think... I think I was still Erik the last time."

Cubelios draped herself over his shoulders in a hug. He smiled at her. "Thanks, Cu." Daphne tucked herself under his chin and wrapped her arms around his waist. He sighed and let himself hold her. It was nice.

"I bet you could even help Sorano. She's so lost and broken. I don't know how to help her. Most days she just wants to die."

"Oh, Erik." She tightened her hold on him. _Why doesn't he just take me with him? 'Problems' he says. Well that's vague as shit smells on a hot day. And this bag of dicks uncle of his. Somebody needs to kick that guy's ass. The Tower of Hell place he talked about. I hope somebody burned it down. If they didn't and I ever find it I'm blowing it the fuck up._

He loved that attitude. The Tower of Heaven would be near impossible to destroy. It was just to fucking big. She was more than welcome to try though. The same went for kicking Brain's ass.

"We should keep walking, Kitten."

"Ok." She kept an arm around his waist as they walked. By the time they reached the outskirts of Magnolia he had grown quite embarrassed by how his strange comfort level around his Daphne, combined with his poison induced high, had caused him to vomit emotional rainbows. Before he knew it he was going to start shitting sparkles or hugging people.

Except... He had already done that. He hugged Daphne. Shit! He was totally fucking losing it! If his next shit had sparkles in it he was offing himself.

Cubelios stayed hidden outside of town. They found a cafe close enough to the guildhall for him to hear and sat down to drink tea. At least she drank tea. He mostly just held his mug and talked. He wasn't letting her walk in there without doing his own brand of recon. She knew he was listening. He just hadn't told her how deep he could hear.

"I think you will be happy here. They are all bat shit crazy, but it sounds like they care about each other. Titania isn't here right now. Salamander is. I think that guy cooked off most of his brain cells or something."

"If you can't be poisoned what makes you think he can cook himself?" He smirked at her.

"You'll see. You'll probably like him, but he's a little bit ...simple. Watch Loke. You might be able to give him a hand, but keep him at arms length. The Stripper is depressed. I bet you can help him with that."

"What stripper?"

"You'll see." She glared at him. _Stubborn man. Why does he keep teasing me?_ "I don't want to give you all the answers before you even find the questions. It wouldn't be fun that way."

Her glare faded and she smiled at him. The same smile she had given her keys the first time she told him about her magic. He just thought it was weird at the time but now he was thinking it was an expression that indicated affection. It meant she cared about him.

"I'll miss you, Daphne."

"Then come visit me."

"I don't foresee me being able to."

"Oh." _I had so hoped to see him again. I'll miss him too. To much._

"I'll try though. I promise. I'll come check on you if I can." _That's the best I can hope for. I'll worry about him though. And his sister and brothers too._ "You take care of yourself ok? I've got enough on my plate without having to worry about my Daphne." _His Daphne? Not just Daphne huh?_

"I will. You be careful too. I'll worry anyway, but I'll worry less if you promise to be careful." _Please? You are important to me._ "Don't let your problems and your bag of dicks uncle get to you." Hearing her say that out loud was hilarious. "Come find me if you need help. Or even if you just need to eat a shit ton of cotoneaster berries and just talk to someone. I'll even plant a bush once I get a place to stay." _I've never had a green thumb before but I'll try. Even if I have to plant it in a pot in my window._

"I'll try." Shit happened. He had problems. Brain was a shit ton of bad news and had a new plan in the works. His adopted siblings were teetering on the edge of bat shit crazy in a bad way. He would be careful if he could, but he doubted he would have the option. He stood, paid their bill, and walked her just a few feet closer to her new home. "I'll stick around untill I'm sure you are safe here. Till you get your stamp. If you change your mind before then call for me and I will be there. Be free, and have fun."

"I'll try." _Please kiss me goodbye, Erik._ So he did. He almost lost himself in it and his fingertips were shaking when he stopped. _Wow. That was amazing. Why did he do that?_

"Because I wanted to. And you asked me to." _But I didn't... Oh, shit! You can fucking hear thoughts!_ "Yep."

"Have you been doing that this whole time?!" _Stars that would be so mortifying._

"Want me to tell you the first thing you thought about me?" _Shit! I don't remember! Did I think about how sexy he is? Fuck he can hear me! I'm so embarrassed right now!_ "Holy panties." _Can I die now?_ "I was listening before that though, when you were arguing with that over ripe apricot about your new dog spirit." He dipped his head down and stole another kiss before he turned and all but ran from her while he still had the power to leave.

 _Erik whatever your last name is... Shit I never even asked... You are a fucking creepy mind stalker! ...who kisses like a god... You better come back and visit me or I will hunt your sexy ass down you hear me? ...stupid Lucy of course he does... Tell Cubelios I will miss her too! She's the cuddliest giant snake ever! ...not like I have anything to compare her to though... Be safe Erik._

He stayed and listened as she met her new guild. She liked them. They loved her already. The Hargeon incident was brought up and they praised the water wizard who had brought the criminals to justice, though she didn't tell them she had been involved. 'Screw the magic council' their guild master said. He liked them to. She would be happy and safe here. The last thing he heard as he left was her thought as her guildmark was placed on her hand.

 _Blushing pink. Like the edges of a daphne flower's petals._

 _XxXxXxXxX_

 _Till Tomorrow_


	2. Chapter 2 Cobra

**CoLu Week Day 7: Staff**

 **Staff** _(noun)_ a) employees of an organization b) stick, usually used for walking though sometimes used as a weapon

 **XxXxXxXxX**

It had been four months since Lucy had seen Erik. It had not, however, been anywhere near that long since he had seen her. He had come to check on her, just like he had promised. He had been to see her three times that she knew of.

Once after the Phantom War, like right after. She wasn't sure how he had known, but the morning after she got back from visting her father she had awoken to a second head imprint in her pillow which was still warm. All the ripe berries off her little cotoneaster bush were gone, and there was a tiny glass vial of murky purple stuff strung on a golden necklace on her table along with a note. 'In case of emergency when outnumbered or outclassed and alone. Hold breath, throw to break, run. Seriously don't breathe this shit.' She guessed it was some sort of poison gas bomb and hoped it wouldn't kill anyone if she was forced to use it. She also found a book of celestial spells on her bookshelf that week, that she could have sworn had been in her father's safe since her mom died. The same copy. Her mother's name was written inside.

After that she started picking her poison berries as they ripened. She used a needle and thread to hang them in the window to dry. After they were completely dry she put them in a small wooden box that had snake eyes carved in the top. The box actually came from Galuna Island, and her team had told her it was creepy, but it reminded her of Erik and Cubelios so it came home. She also had Mira save all the apple seeds she could. Those got toasted with sugar and put in a jar in the wooden 'box of death' as Natsu called it.

The second time he came to see her while she was asleep nothing interesting had been going on in her life. She was pretty sure he was dealing with some shit though, because she found bloody bandages in her bathroom. The 'box of death' was simply missing when she woke up. Two weeks later the box was back, but it wasn't empty. Inside was the silver key to Pavo the Peacock and a note.

'This was supposed to go to my sister, however I'm thinking you will take better care of it and appreciate it more. I'm losing her, Daphne. Her heart is just shriveling up inside her. She used to lIke her magic. She never lived it, but she at least liked it. Now if it had a choice her magic would leave her. She doesn't love anything anymore. Not her magic, not herself, and most days not even us.

She says you must be crazier than any of us for encouraging me to stalk you. I told them about you after Macbeth's nosy ass found the box. He doesn't sleep at night and the rest of us do so he gets bored. My brothers send their greetings. I told them what I heard you think about Bora after the charm spell broke. Macbeth laughed. It was barely there, but I heard it.

Be careful ok? Shit's getting heavy and my uncle is trying to drive this train strait off a cliff. Stay with your team. Avoid Demons and drama if you can. I know you are a trouble magnet though so it's probably impossible. Try for me.

Your Erik'

The letter was folded and hung in a locket on the gold chain with her little poison bomb. She had gotten the instructions etched onto the glass in Erik's handwriting. It was a piece of him to carry with her. She doubted she would ever use it. Circumstances had to be end-of-the-world dire for her to break his gift.

Now here she was, standing in front of atrociously heart themed building, about to do the one thing she was pretty sure that Erik specifically warned her _not_ to do in his letter. Her team was representing Fairy Tail in a coalition of guilds to take down the Oracion Seis, a dark Guild whose members were also known by the name the Six Demons. She was pretty sure the word demons had been capitalized in Erik's letter for a reason. She had argued with the master when he assigned her to this job, but there was just no talking him out of it. She wrapped her hand around her bomb, prayed to Mavis for strength, and entered the ominously empty building with her team.

The Trimens were creepy. Don't get her wrong, she was flattered at first, but the rosy glow didn't last long. Ichiya was beyond even creepy. She had no words to accurately describe the little troll man. Lyon and Sherry were just as full of shit as they had been on Galuna Island. At least their asses were pointed in the right direction this time. Jura was intimidating as fuck, and unshakable. Wendy was so freaking adorable Lucy was thinking about shoving her into her suitcase and smuggling her home.

She listened with growing horror as Ichiya described the terrible magic the Oracion Seis was hunting for. It was terrible. If Erik knew about this it was no surprise to her that he had warned her away. She couldn't run from this though. It was to important.

"That's Archive."

"Don't believe I've seen it in use before."

"And it does what exactly?"

"Storing information." Her heart stopped beating when the images came into existence. "Such as these photographs of our enemy." It was Erik. Erik and Cubelios. "Don't ask how we got em." 'Problems' he said. If being eyebrows deep in shit could be classified as a simple problem. "First up is the snake wizard. Cobra." Well if she was going to give herself a bad ass I'm-a-total-psychopath alter ego, and she was a poison wizard Cobra seemed like a good choice.

"Beady eyes and a mischievous smirk. He looks like trouble to me." Oh shove it, Natsu! Erik's eyes aren't beady. They are beautiful, intense, but beautiful. She could acknowledge that his smirk was filled to brimming over with mischeif though. The rest of the coalition continued to make comments as Hibiki moved to the next picture.

"Next is a wizard who, judging by his name, likely uses speed magic. Meet Racer. Then there's a wizard who's willing to wipe out an entire military unit, if the price is right. Divine Eyes Hoteye." Shit! Running and money. Sawyer and Richard? His family was in the fucking guild? For fucking real! Problems my ass! "She's gorgeous, but just as vicious. This is Angel." Fuck, fuck, fuck! If that was Sorano then that meant Macbeth would be here too. "The next member is such a mystery that all we know is his name. Midnight." That left one of the Seis and only one family member. "Finally, the commander of the Oracion Seis. Brain." If his bag of dicks uncle was the guild master it would explain a lot. In theory. She narrowed her eyes and glared at the picture. You wait asshole. I didn't want to be involved in this until I knew you were here. I'll see you locked up where the sun doesn't shine. "There you have it. Alone they can wipe out entire guilds and together they are unstoppable. We have twelve to their six but that's our only advantage."

The wizards around her began to grumble and whine. Wendy was terrified, Carla was a snooty bitch, and Happy was only making it worse. Lucy had gone from jelly-legged-terrified to absolutely furious.

"Curb your fear my friends. There is more to our operation than mortal combat. With your help perhaps we can find the enemy's stronghold!" Yeah, no. Erik would hear them coming a mile away.

"Stop right there. It won't work and even if it did that's not what needs to happen."

"Lucy?" Erza blinked at her unusual bout of aggression.

"What's up with you, Luce?" Lucy ignored her team. This was important.

"Pull up the images again, Hibiki." The other wizards didn't know that she wasn't usually the take charge type, so they were just going with it, but she was getting weird looks from her team. "This guy." She pointed at 'Brain'. She would start at that end of the list and move backwards. "That's your enemy. He will be crazy powerful and he won't hesitate to use the others as shields or cannon fodder." Erik had made it clear that his 'uncle' didn't give one shit about any of them and made a habit of using them against eachother. "Next, Midnight. Unless he attacks you just leave him alone." He didn't sleep at night. He was sleeping in the picture. Maybe it had something to do with his magic. Let sleeping dogs lie. "In fact, accept for Brain that goes for all of them."

"Lucy I demand an explanation! What do you know about these people and why didn't you say anything before!"

"Erza, I need you to trust me. I know what I know because I know it and I'm not telling you anything else. I made a promise." She held eye contact with the redhead until she backed down.

"Ok. Angel. She's a celestial wizard like me. Get her keys. Don't hurt her. She probably can't do much to harm us without them."

"We don't even know that. How do you?" Ichiya seemed a little rattled.

"I just do. Now. There is no money in this, so Hoteye probably won't make it personal. If given an option Racer will probably avoid a direct conflict. These four are delicate in the head. Don't push them. They could become irrational."

"Lu..."

"Shut up, Natsu. This is important. Like really important in ways none of you understand. Just let me talk." She stared at him, but to her surprise he didn't back down like Erza had.

"Answer me one question. Is this about your dragon?" Natsu had smelled dragon on her when she first arrived at the guild. He mentioned it several times after that too. After each of the three times she knew Erik had visited, and several times when she guessed he had dropped by Magnolia just to listen from a distance. No matter what he said or did she refused to talk about it. He knew that it had something to do with what he called her obsession with dying slowly and painfully, in other words the Erik related poison collection she had. He said her bomb smelled 'dragony'. "If it is I will trust you on it and not ask any more questions."

"Fine. Yes." He settled down and started paying attention.

"You have a dragon!" Wendy was freaking out.

"No, I don't. Natsu is talking about a smell. I've never had the honor of meeting a real dragon. Though I hope that we can find Igneel someday and I can meet him. Anyway. Focus people!" She turned back to the pictures hanging mid air. She missed Erik. Hopefully when they were done dealing with this shit storm he wouldn't have to hide anymore. "So, let's recap so far. Master Asshole is the enemy. He's very powerful and very dangerous. Defend yourself if attacked from the others, otherwise let them be."

"What about Cobra? Do you have information on him? And what is the goal of this plan?" Jura. Unflappable.

"The goal of this plan is freedom. Let's leave it at that. As far as Cobra goes..." She thought for a long moment. She had information yes, but it wasn't for sharing. She was going to have to wait untill she could communicate with him to know how to play this. "The snake has human intelligence. She doesn't speak, but she understands us, and can communicate with anyone who knows what to look for. Natsu might be able to learn on the fly. He's good with body language. She is to ...to Cobra like Happy is to Natsu. She will follow his lead."

"Wait, so the snake the snake wizard keeps around isn't his magic?"

"Correct. Cubelios is her own magic, or has her own magic, depending on how you look at it."

"It has a name!"

"She, Gray. Cubelios is a female. Of course she has a name. How would you like to go your whole life without a name? Actually starting now you don't have one." She turned her back on her teammate. "Moving on! As far as Cobra goes just let me deal with him."

"You want to take him on by yourself?!"

"We aren't fighting. If this doesn't go the way I hope it will there is no way I can beat him. He..." He knows everything that we think. If Erik isn't there and we have to deal with Cobra we are so screwed. "Honestly I don't know if anyone can beat him if I fail."

"He is that powerful?"

"It's not a matter of power, Erza, though he has that too."

"What is it a matter of then?" She wasn't going to betray him by answering that question.

"If you contact him without me tell him the truth and tell him I'm looking for him. If it comes to a fight just run. Strength won't help you against this guy. Don't stay and defend yourself. Run. If you are with me when we meet you need to take your cue from us. Watch, wait, listen. Act only if we do or if directly attacked. There's... a lot going on here. More than just a simple dark guild hunting dark magic. Trust me on this. Back me up and we will all come out of this better than our guilds are expecting. If... If Cobra attacks me then I was obviously wrong and screwed us." She refused to believe that would happen. Erik would be freed. He and his brothers and his sister were coming home with her.

"Does anyone need supplies before we go?" She scanned the faces around her. "Where is Ichiya?" Noone knew. They found him in the bathroom with a huge lump on his head, mumbling about big blue bugs. Wendy healed him but said he needed to rest and wake on his own to be in fighting shape. Lucy doubted he would be in fighting shape even then.

"I doubt even Ichiya is clumsy enough to do that to himself." Erza muttered.

"Right. That means they probably already know we are here. We may already be screwed, but let's go."

"Go where?"

"I think we should just start walking honestly. Cobra will find us." He would hear them. Some of them sooner than others considering how much noise Natsu was making. She just hoped he did before anyone else could cause trouble.

Of course Natsu turned their just walking into a race. Gray got involved which involved Lyon. Erza and Sherry followed the boys. Lucy and Wendy followed, carrying Happy and Carla, because no way were they staying behind when the Trimens were following them. Jura kept up.

Natsu ran off a cliff, because winning a race was apparently worth breaking your neck for. By the time they regrouped the magic bomber was overhead. The enormous Pegasus was quite promptly shot out of the sky. It fell to the ground in a huge ball of fire, from which emerged, with true dark guild worthy drama, the Oracion Seis. Erik, or at least his apparently evil alter ego, and his family. Lucy kept her expression passive, but immediately began directing her thoughts at the poison slayer as if they were being spoken aloud.

 _I missed you, Erik. Like really, really missed you. You could have stayed, like, five more minutes that time you stripped my bush and I could have, I don't know, seen your eyes or gotten a kiss or something._ The corner of his mouth twitched. He was trying not to smile.

"Lowly maggots, swarming together."

 _Maggots can't swarm, because they don't have wings idiot. I really don't like your uncle._ He quirked an eyebrow at her. _Yeah, that's right. I figured out the family thing. Not Stupid, standing right here. You however..._

"Gemini learned all sorts of interesting things while she was in short stuff's head. This is going to be an interesting party." _Sorano I'm guessing? Gemini is a Zodiac spirit. If they were 'in' Ichiya's head then they use some sort of mind swapping or copying magic. Please tell me she didn't feel like sharing with Brain and we have time to talk._

He gave her a single dramatic blink that she took as a yes. Cubelios didn't have eyelids and Erik couldn't go around sticking his tongue out. That would be weird. She was really grateful for her crash course in Cubelios during their trip from Hargeon to Magnolia. She would be lost without it. Communicating this way must be frustrating as shit for the snake. His eyes were laughing at her.

"The quicker we wrap this up the better. I'll run you over so fast it'll make your head spin." _Sawyer?_ Her eyes ran to the man sleeping on a flying carpet. _Macbeth? Is he running magic through that thing constantly? That sounds exhausting._

"Money determines strength in this world. Oh, yeah! If you save but a penny today it shall become a vast fortune in the future." _Sorry to disappoint you Richard but it doesn't work that way. Oh, that reminds me. We destroyed the Tower of Heaven, Erik. Blew the whole thing to oblivion._

"No fucking shit!" The Oracion Seis all gaped at their wide eyed slayer. All accept the sleeping one. "Wake him up, Cu! He needs to hear this." The snake slithered down Erik's leg, over to the sleeper, grasped a corner tasle in her mouth and yanked. Red eyes snapped open before he even hit the ground. He didn't change position, but he was wide awake now.

"What is the meaning of this, Cobra?" Erik sneered at Brain as he helped Cubelios back onto his shoulders, but didn't answer. Lucy saw the glimmer of fear in Sorano's eyes and felt a red hot rage toward the man who had obviously hurt these people. It took that angry demand for Lucy's fellow light wizards to realize that there was something _off_ about the snake wizard's behavior. He turned back and looked at her.

"How did you even find the damn thing?" _Erza. She escaped during a revolt when she was little._ "I remember that." _Crazy shit went down. Possession, betrayal, lots of drama. Long story short, an old frenemy of Erza's tried to sacrifice her to the tower in order to resurrect Zeref. Who would ever want to do that? We objected, fighting ensued, we blew the thing to shit. Natsu actually ate a piece of the tower while it was an etherion lacrima. Made him really sick._ Erik chuckled. "Fuck I missed your trouble magnet self, Daphne."

"Daphne!" Sorano gasped and her eyes flicked from Shelly, to Erza, to Lucy and settled there. "That's why..."

"That's why you woke me up? Your Daphne is here?"

"She is, but that's not why we woke you. I can hear you. It isn't like that!"

"Cobra! Must I remind you what is at stake here? Who is Daphne and who are you talking to? I demand you focus on the task at hand!"

"Your demands can fucking wait for this story!" Erik's snarl had the other four leaning away from both him and Brain. "They deserve to hear this! We can all focus after!" Lucy's side of their little standoff was getting antsy. She could hear Natsu sniffing at the air.

"A story! Can we call a truce for story time!" The Seis just stared at Erza for a moment. Brain was obviously unhappy, but stayed silent. Erik shrugged.

"Ya know what, why the fuck not." Erza requiped into pajamas and pulled a stuffed bear from somewhere. She sat and stared at Erik. "You have issues. You won't like this story, and you have to help tell it, so you shouldn't be happy."

"Why won't I like it?"

"Jellal." Lucy was pretty sure the air pressure dropped. There were noisy inhales from all the Seis, the Fairies, Jura, and Wendy. Lucy guesses Jura was well informed as a wizard saint, but she didn't know what Wendy's issue was. She didn't see her either, so the shy girl must be hiding.

 _Now that we've thoroughly confused and upset pretty much everyone... Should I get my drama on or just sit still and look pretty?_

"Go ahead." He grinned at her. She started weaving her way to the front of the crown to sit next to Erza.

"Gather around boys and girls. Have a seat, pop a squat, or stand there like a creeper. I don't really care. I don't have any marshmallows, but we can pretend Natsu is a camp fire. Come here Natsu. The storyteller is supposed to sit by the fire. Nameless one you can come support us too. Happy can stay where he is." Happy would be with Carla who would be with Wendy and she needed extra furry cuddles. Erik suddenly turned to Racer.

"Then you can run laps for all I care, but listen!" That sounded like her cue.

"It was a dark and stormy night. Well actually it was in the middle of the day and sunny, but Natsu ate the Tower of Heaven anyway."

"He fucking did what!" Midnight had been about to fall asleep again, but he was definitely awake now. Racer sat. Lucy wasn't entirely sure it was intentional. _Erik, this story won't hold everyone for long. When this makeshIft therapy session ends what happens? If you really want to do this whole 'Cobra' thing I know I can't stop you. I doubt even Jura could and he's a fucking wizard saint._ His eyes flicked from Racer to Midnight, then focused on Natsu.

"Luce! I only ate it because I was out of magic energy and there wasn't any fire! You just want an excuse to make fun of me for getting sick." _The story? Is it supposed to help them decide? Is that why we are doing this?_ He blinked again and tipped his head back just a little. So, yes with a positive flavor.

"You ate a tower and expected not to get sick?" Lyon scoffed. She guessed it would sound like that if you didn't know what the tower even was or anything. _Come home with me, Erik._ She could see the conflict on his face.

"I didn't eat the whole tower! It was just a few bites and it made of etherion!" _Your sister and brothers can come too if that's what they want. I know you are here for them, but you are losing yourself too. Look at where you are right now. What you were doing before I got here._

"You ate etherion and lived?" Huh, looks like even Brain was into the story. She knew starting at the end was a good idea. Erik looked into her eyes and nodded. She had to fight to keep her relief from showing. He was coming home.

"It was an emergency! He made Erza cry!" Cobra snorted in Natsu's general direction.

"This shit is getting us nowhere fast. The story needs to start at the beginning. Hell I'll even kick this AA meeting off. Hi, I'm Cobra."

"Hi, Cobra!" Lucy chimed in with her happiest, sunniest voice. He gave her a look that said she had a couple screws rattling around up top. _What? It was funny. You started it._

"Thank you, Shits and Giggles." She giggled. She couldn't help it. She missed his brand of humor. "I was there, in the Tower, when Jellal rose to power. I wasn't there long before he and Brain struck a deal that got me out. I suffer from severe sarcasism and a fatal case of assholeness along with a tendency to kill people prematurely as a result of childhood trauma. End of story. Moving on. Next victim. Titania, I nominate you. Ready, set, go."

 _Wow. You're trying really hard to not make friends aren't you?_ He shrugged. _You really aren't a people person are you?_ He glared at her.

"Hello, I'm Erza Scarlet. I was just Erza until Jellal gave me my last name my first day in the Tower. He was a good boy, and my best friend, before we were caught in an escape attempt. I lost my eye. He lost his soul. I escaped, and he chose to stay." _We need to move this faster don't we? Brain is the opposite of happy._ He double blinked. There really needed to get moving then.

"Erza, Cobra was being sarcastic. They just want to know what happened to the tower. Recently."

"Yeah, can you pick up the pace a little, so we can get back to what we came here for?"

"Agreed, Racer. I to am interested in how they accomplished such a feat. That is the only reason I am allowing this delay in our search for Nirvana." Erik's lips twisted into a sneer again. Lucy was guessing that Brain didn't really have a choice in the matter as long as the other five were united in their wish to hear about the Tower's destruction. _He could always Leave and go search without you. It would make this whole peace treaty negotiation/ transfer of allegiance thing easier._ He smirked at her.

"Right! Let's finish this story so we can fight!" Because fighting was always the priority in Natsu's book. "Jellal was trying to use the Tower of Heaven to resurect some evil wizard because he was crazy and thought he was a god. So he had his brainwashed buddies kidnap Erza to use her as a sacrifice!" Natsu continued telling the story with interjections from Gray and Erza.

 _Natsu's version of this story is likely to be a little... skewed, but it will do. So the plan I laid out was: Brain as the enemy and defence only with Sorano and your brothers. I couldn't get much more specific other than to take Sorano's keys if she proved to be a problem, because I have no clue how the chips will fall once Brain realizes you aren't backing his play anymore. Honestly my entire plan hinged on wether you were Erik or Cobra when I found you and the decision your siblings have yet to make._ He rolled his intense purple eyes at her. _I know. It's a kinda sucky plan._ There was that tiny smile again.

 _So should I keep talking?_ He blinked a yes. _I learned some if the spells in that book you stole from my dad. I'm going to want to hear that story by the way. Urano Metria is probably the most powerful, but it totally wipes me out to use it even once. I also learned a purifying spell, and one that is basically a really bright flashlight that can double as a laser, but I don't have that kind of control with it yet._

 _I got some new spirits! Pavo the Peacock you know about. He is like the world's most miraculous tailor, not much use in a fight unless my enemy has a fear of velvet or taffeta. I also have Pyxis the Compass. He's a real sweety._

 _There is Loke of course. He uses light magic. He's really Leo the Lion, but you already knew about him being a spirit didn't you. I helped him and he is my most loyal spirit now. Though Virgo may be tied with him. It's hard to tell with her. She drills holes and uses chains. Honestly she is really odd, but I love her. I also have Sagittarius the Archer. That makes six out of the twelve Zodiac._

"Erza wanted them to join Fairy Tail, but they wanted to go see the world instead, so we gave them a Fairy Tail send off. Gray and I even made fireworks with our magic." Erik's head snapped around to look at Erza.

"Say that out loud."

"Say what?"

"Their names. Say their names out loud." Erza's eyes grew wide and flicked back and forth between Lucy and Erik. She had probably realized that he had read her thoughts somehow and was going over the implications of him having that ability. She finally focused on Erik with narrowed eyes. If Lucy had to guess she would say questions were being asked silently. He nodded at her and she let out a loud breath she must have been holding.

"Chips are about to be tossed, Daphne." Shit. And most of her team was sitting on the ground, totally open to attack. She had no idea why the names of their traveling friends were important, but something was about to change shit up.

"Natsu, help me up. My leg is asleep." It hadn't really, but getting her up would get Natsu up. Erza was at least halfway in the loop now, so hopefully she would be prepared. She stayed sitting, but Lucy could see her tense. Lucy dropped her hand to run her fingers over her keys. Loke send a pulse of magic through his.

"Their names are Millianna, Sho, and Wally." The younger Seis all jerked.

"Wally? Wally Buchanan?"

"I...yes. How did you know?"

"He is alive?"

"Well, yes. I just spoke with him via lacrima last week." Shit seemed to go all to crazy pretty quick. Richard started crying great big anime style rivers. Brain gasped as one of the tattoos on his face started to disappear. He let out a cry of rage and dark magic began to gather around his staff. Cubelios lashed out to sink her teeth into his left arm, retreating just as fast. Another tattoo line started fading as Erik spun and planted a foot in the man's gut, throwing him backwards.

While he was in the air Gray and Jura got shielding spells up. Loke was summoned with a thought. An ice ape and a mud doll were manifest and the Trimens fell into battle formation. Erza got to her feet, now in her Purgatory armor. Natsu, somehow ended up outside their iron rock/ice cave and was of course on fire.

Erik hit Brain with a poison dragon roar as soon as he hit the ground, sending him up again and further into the trees. Richard was still crying, but on his knees. Racer and Midnight had joined Sorano where she stood. They were quite obviously shaken, but none of them drew on their magic, or cast any spells either defensive or offensive. They seemed to be waiting for something.

"Angel, Racer, hold your prayers. We already lost me and Hoteye. I don't want to have to deal with Zero." Lucy had no clue what he meant by that. Erik stepped back so he stood even with Natsu and the two dragon slayers crouched low facing the man Lucy had designated The Enemy.

"Cobra, what are you doing? Why would you betray us?" Midnight looked lost, torn, like he had been stabbed.

"Not you, Midnight. Just him. I'm done. All we've ever wanted was freedom and he's been dangling it as a carrot for years with no intention of giving it to us. His price was our soul and I refuse to give him mine. I'm going home with my Daphne. Starting over. She has offered you the same chance if you come with us."

"But..."

"How dare you turn your poison against me! I gave you that magic!" The Enemy began to glow again with dark magic.

"You cut me open while I screamed and fucking shoved it inside me!" Lucy's rage reached new heights. She began working her way toward a small opening in their shelter. "The dragon magic killed me twice before my body acclimated and you fucking laughed the whole time." She focused all her anger on her spell.

"Light of Sirius brought to bear." That was the easy part. The spell was just light if used at this point. It was the rest of the incantation that made it dangerous. Her chosen fingertip began to glow, but she contained her magic so as not to give herself away yet. "Shine with a brightness that burns the air." She lifted her glowing middle finger in a big F you to Brain before pointing it. "Celestial Ray!"

The white hot light melted Gray's ice away from the small opening it shot through. Natsu yelped and leapt away as it passed him. Grass and bushes wilted along its path and a tree burst into flames. She was a little off with her aim, because of her poetically chosen finger, so Brain survived. The laser cut clean through his right arm though, searing the wound shut. He screamed.

Lucy had just cut off a man's arm with starlight and she didn't even feel guilty. Natsu gave a cackle of glee as he slurped the fire out of the tree. She was glad he was here because she _would_ have felt guilty if she had burned down the forest. It hadn't hurt anybody ever.

"As hot as that was can you imagine if it had failed like every other time you tried that spell?" Erik wasn't even looking at her. He was still watching Brain writhe in agony. His creepy witch doctor staff was still standing there. "Hey you! Look at me! I'm flipping you off with a flashlight! Fear my wrath!" Lucy started to laugh, until she heard a single broken word from Midnight.

"Father..."

"Gray, let me out."

"Oh, so now I have a name, do I?"

"Just let me the fuck out damn it!" Gray rolled his eyes, but dropped his ice enough to allow her passage. She tried to look as unthreatening as possible as she walked away from what, from the outside, looked like a scary little hedgehog fort.

"He's not your father, Midnight! He's no more your father than he's any of ours..." She stopped next to Erik and leaned into his side just a little. She got a slither tongue kiss on her chin from Cubelios. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and give him a proper I-haven't-seen-you-in-months-and-missed-the-fuck-out-of-you hug, but they were still in the middle of a battle ...type ..thing. Sort of. She wasn't sure what it was right now, but a real hug didn't sound safe. There was tittering coming from the hedgehog fort and the Seis were giving them disbelieving looks.

 _Audio hug._ He snorted at her. _Can I talk to him? About the dad thing? I don't know if he will listen but you know I've been through the bag-of-dicks dad thing._ He pressed a hand lightly to her back. They walked slowly forward with Natsu trailing behind. _I really hope he behaves himself. I get a real hug when this is over with._ He hummed in what she took for agreement.

"Midnight?" The make-up wearing boy eyed her warily. "I'm Lucy. I'm Erik's Daphne." Angel gasped.

"He lets you call him that?" She gave them a smile.

"I didn't even know the name Cobra until this morning. He's been Erik to me since we met." The feather clad girl looked at the slayer beside her.

"Why?"

"Apricots and Fecal smears." Natsu made a choking sound. She dug an elbow into Erik's ribs. He must have let her, because he should have heard that coming.

"That doesn't even make sense to me and I was there. What the hell have you been telling them about me? If it was all that weird I'm dumping the box of death down the toilet."

"It wasn't. I promise. And you wouldn't do that. You are looking forward to attempting to get me to do embarrasing things in a toxic induced haze way to much to follow through with that threat."

Brain made it to his feet with the help of his staff and took a step toward them. They tensed, but before anyone could do anything he was locked in an iron rock prison. The staff was knocked several feet away, but somehow the creepy thing remained upright. Erza shot out of the hedgehog fort and slapped him with magic canceling cuffs, well one cuff at least, that she must have pulled from requip storage. Midnight literally wavered on his feet. _Would using his real name be good or bad right now?_ Erik pushed against her back encouragingly.

"Macbeth." She had barely whispered but his red eyes snapped to hers. "What is family? Does family hurt each other or protect each other? Do they take from those they care about or give? Do they tear each other down or hold each other up? Does family harm family? I had a father once. A real, honest to Mavis, blood father. He tried to sell me into what he called a marriage and I call slavery. Sell me. As a business proposition." She looked straight at Hoteye. "We were so rich we didn't know what to do with ourselves and he still needed more. When I refused he tried to take my magic, so I ran."

"Erik was the one who helped me find the people I call family now. I have two brothers who are annoying as hell and twice as retarded" Cries of outrage were heard from said brothers, and a wail came from Happy at not being included. Sucker. "And another brother who is retarded as shit and four times as annoying." Another wail from Happy. Erik snickered. "I found a sister who always has my back in Erza. I've got a shit ton of cousins, a handful of pervy uncles, and apparently the pervy grows stronger with age because Gramps really is a super perv." Agreement was heard from everyone who knew Makarov in the slightest. "But I really wouldn't trade them for the world. We take care of each other, protect each other."

"When my 'father'" She literally made air bunnies for that word, because she was still pissed as all hell at the man. "Brought war to Fairy Tail's doorstep in an attempt to bring me back I was going to leave. It tore my heart out, but I was going to do it. To protect my family. They had different ideas. Natsu said something I will never forget. 'You're Lucy of Fairy Tail.'" She lifted her eyes to Racer. "'No more running, cuz you belong here with us.' Then my family told Master Jose they would rather die than let him take me somewhere I would be unhappy."

"That is what family does. They do everything they can to make eachother happy, even if they have to sacrifice to do it." She pointed at where Brain was struggling to escape the trap that had by now had several layers added to it. "That guy is not your family. Erik is your family, and if you let us Fairy Tail and I will be your family too, but only if that is what makes you happy." She was silent for a long moment. Gray and Lyon started a fight in the background, which their little group managed to ignore after the initial surprise and a raised eyebrow from Angel.

"What do you guys want? Out of life I mean. Maybe thinking about that will help you know what you want right now."

"My prayer. To vanish into the heavens, like an angel, pure and white." Lucy gave that some thought.

"There is a mage in my guild who loves fairies so much she learned what she calls fairy magic. Like strait up shoots people with sparkles and has wings and everything. Was celestial magic your choice or someone else's?" Angel just looked away. "You could leave this Angel behind. Be Sorano again. We can help you find a magic all your own. One that you love. We could give you wings, help you fly." Angel's eyes were wide by the time she was finished.

"You, you don't even know me, who I am, what I've done... I killed people for this magic. I can't just give it up. You would have been next. I would have killed you and taken your keys off your cold dead body! You don't want to help me!" That hurt. She couldn't deny that. But it wasn't the thought of dying that bothered her. It was the thought of losing her spirits to someone who wouldn't love them.

"Can I ask you a question? It might be kinda personal and you don't have to answer it. When you use your keys, every single time, it reminds you of what that man forced you to do doesn't it? It hurts to use them doesn't it? So why would you keep doing it if you can choose to be happy?" Lucy saw a single tear escape before the feather clad mage turned away to hide her face. She thought about offering a hug, but Erik's fingers tightened in the back of her shirt. Apparently this wasn't the time or the place. Maybe later. These people were in desperate need of hugs.

"I'll go with you." Racer spoke up. "Just because I'm the fastest man alive doesn't mean I have to run..." Brain began protesting. Loudly. Gray put an ice bubble layer on his cage that dulled the sound, he then proceeded to start a mini brawl with Natsu, Lyon, and the Trimens. Wendy had emerged at some point and seemed to be the cause of the disagreement, though she didn't seem happy about it. "...Right now though I think I'm going to run and get the shackles." Angel and Midnight both turned to look at Brain. Lucy wasn't sure what Racer meant by shackles but if the looks on their faces were anything to judge by it was bad. Midnight looked pained. Angel's grin was ...dark. "We'll need a bigger magical drain than that puny cuff if all the prayers fall." Sawyer, well, raced off.

"I too will leave the name of Hoteye behind and be reborn in brotherly love as Richard. Oh Yeah! When the time comes I shall be reunited with my little brother and we shall travel the world together in search of adventure. Oh Yeah!" Erik pressed his hand against her back. _Yes! Hug time!_ She jumped as high as she could and gave it her A-best effort to wrap her arms around the man. She failed because he was huge, but she tried. _I feel so tiny right now. I need a footstool next time, or a ladder._ Erik snorted at her.

"Welcome to the family, Richard." He hugged the breath right out of her.

"Thank you Lucy! Thank you for bringing me news of my brother!" Erik pulled her out of his pseudo-brother's arms and put her feet back on the ground.

"My pleasure. I just wish we could have gotten you news sooner." _Which we could have if a certain someone had told me Wally's name and given me a way to contact him. Not that I'm pointing any fingers. Erik._ Richard wandered off to talk to her guildmates.

"You just aren't going to let that go are you? I was protecting you. You have no idea what Brain is capable of."

"I'll take your word for it. He didn't seem that scary to me."

"He never expected me to turn on him. That and you cut off his arm. He didn't see you coming. No-one ever does."

"It's not like you ever gave him reason to doubt you." Angel piped up. "Accept for when you disappeared without a word back in August and refused to tell anyone where you went. You brought back a shit ton of jewel though so he didn't give it much thought afterwards."

"Erik..." She knew her voice had taken in the dark tones of 'Scary Lucy' and heard comments along that line from her team behind her. "What did you do to my father?" She knew he had visited the mansion. There was no other way to have gotten her that book. She guessed it had been after she left that day.

"Didn't touch the creature."

"What did you threaten to do to him?"

"Nothing." She glared. "Exactly."

"Are we really going to play this game?"

"Sounds fun to me." She narrowed her eyes at him. _Your Daphne right? So your dragon slayer self would object if I had Natsu rub himself all over my apartment and encouraged him to sleep in my bed for a few days when we get home, right?_ He growled. _I know you scent marked my apartment when you visited. Or whatever it is you call it. Natsu always told me about it. He freaked out the first time, tried to accuse me of hiding a tiny dragon in my dresser or something, but I told him to leave it be and just accept it as a part of my weirdness. So... Still wanna play that game?_

"Fine. I might have strongly insinuated that if he ever came after you or sent anyone after you ever again it wouldn't be your guild he had to worry about. I might have also told him that poison was a slow, painful way to die and that if it was strong enough it would melt right through bone and leave nothing behind. He might have also payed me an exorbitant amount of money to get out of his bedroom and not come back. However there is no proof that that may or may not have actually happened."

"I like him, Luce!"

"Don't encourage him, Natsu!" She sighed. "You can be a really scary guy when you want to you know that?" Erik gave her a weird look.

"I _am_ the boogeyman, Daphne. The only thing more terrifying than me is Midnight because he doesn't even have to touch you to melt your brain while you sleep." That did sound kinda scary.

"No you aren't. You are a sweet, cuddly guy who eats flowers." She leaned forward and stage whispered. "They make you giggle." He blushed. Angel laughed, Midnight released a breathy chuckle.

"I'm in. Just so I can watch whatever it is you two have going on. If you can really get me angel magic, Lucy, I'll... I'll give my keys to you. I've got three Zodiac keys. It would make you really powerful.

"Who! You said earlier you have Gemini. Who else?"

"Scorpio and Aries." Lucy could feel her eyes grow wide.

"Loke...Loke!"

"Princess, what's wrong?"

"I found her! I found her, Loke! You still have the ability to open your own gate into the guildhall right? We have to start right now! Evergreen and Freed could help. I'm thinking big fluffy white wings. Maybe some teleportation or invisibility. And light. We need light! We have to get Levy to..." Erik clapped his hand over her mouth.

"Kitten, you are leaving out huge chunks of this conversation. No-one but me can hear what is in your head. This can wait. We need to finish here before we move on to the next problem." Lucy's shoulders dropped a little. Loke let out a resigned sigh.

"What is the next problem?"

"You Fairies need to find or create angel magic. You do and you get reunited with your stuttering cotton candy." Loke stared at them blankly for a long minute before his eyes snapped to Sorano.

"Aries..." He looked at Lucy with pleading eyes. "Truly, Princess?"

"Sorano holds her contract. She is willing to release her in exchange for angel magic. You can be together again." Loke lit up and started to move toward Sorano. Erik tensed beside her and Lucy snagged her spirit by an ear. "Oh, no you don't lover boy." Either a hug or flirting had been in the works and Lucy was getting the very strong impression that personal space was extremely precious to this little group. As in they would react violently if it was invaded. The way her new friend was eyeing Loke supported that theory. They would need to have a talk about how physical her guild tended to be with their affections before somebody got hurt. Erik's slightly evil sounding chuckle confirmed that. "Go glow at the Enemy or flirt with Sherry or something."

Loke scampered off toward the crowd around the love crazy pinkette. An agitated Lyon was trying to fend off the Trimen and fight with Gray at the same time. Interestingly enough Ren seemed to have actually pulled the girl's attention away from her ice mage. Lucy hoped that went somewhere, for Sherry's sake.

"What about you?" She turned to Midnight who had been sleepily watching Jura fend off Natsu's attempts to goad him into a fight by repeatedly blocking his attacks with impenetrable iron rock. The man blinked at her, only slightly more awake now. "What do you want?" When he didn't answer Erik spoke up.

"Come with us. Sleep in peace and safety. Use your magic to build dreams instead of nightmares. I know you want to. I heard it."

"I... I don't..." The poor man looked at his 'father' obviously conflicted. Sawyer returned then, with a set of the most ornate, heavy looking magic canceling shackles she had ever imagined, much less seen. There were four cuffs linked together by chains. Lucy did _not_ like them. Judging by the low growl from the slayer at her side and the looks from the other Seis, including the man holding them gingerly at arms reach with doubly gloved hands, they didn't like them either.

Erza requiped into some pretty impressive gauntlets before taking them from the speed wizard, who seemed unwilling to approach the Enemy. Gray dropped his ice so she could get to the prisoner. The minute she attached the cuffs to his remaining limbs the man's color changed, shifting through pale and heading straight to green. Gasps from the now free wizards and an enraged hiss from Midnight told her some new level of underhanded assholeness had just been revealed.

 _Should I ask him?_ Lucy ran an idea through her head for Erik's approval. He pressed his hand to her back again.

"Midnight? Come with us. Be Macbeth. Be free." Still he hesitated and she very slowly reached out to lay her fingers softly against his arm. He stared at her hand as if it were some alien creature. "I'd love to have another brother." He gaped at her with wide eyes before suddenly snatching her away from Erik into a tight hug. She was startled, obviously, but not afraid. Erik wasn't going to let anyone harm her. She could hear Brain cursing and screaming before Gray recast his ice bubble to dull the noise.

"Thank you. If you really mean that I will come with you. I admit he messed up my head pretty bad. I'm not even sure if I know right from wrong anymore. I'm not sure if any of us do. If you can be our Polaris though I want to try. I don't want to live like this anymore. I don't want to walk in the dark." She wrapped her arms around him and held tight. These poor people. If they needed a guiding star she could do that. She could be their family and help guide them to walk in the light.

"How could you all abandon your duties to Master Zero like this?!" An new voice spoke. Erik and Sorano both groaned. Macbeth released her from his all but smothering hug, though he kept his arm around her shoulders. She expected he needed the physical reassurance that she wasn't going anywhere, and that he would make an awesome cuddle buddy. She shifted herself in his arm loop to blink at the now animated, and talking, creepy witch doctor staff.

"Who the hell are you?" Natsu asked the question she was sure everyone was thinking.

"I am Clodoa! The secret seventh member of the Oracion Seis, honored staff of Lord Brain, and advisor to Master Zero!" What in the actual fuck? Who was Zero and why was the stick talking?

"Zero is Brain's other personality." Erik grumbled. "He is the one screaming in the elemental prison right now." He began to stalk toward the staff. "You aren't a member of anything, Clodoa, or the honored staff of anything, or an advisor to anyone. You're just an annoying, soon to be melted talking stick!"

Erik lunged. Clodoa dodged. Apparently the creepy stick didn't think in a way that the slayer could hear. Natsu shot fire at it and missed. Gray cast an ice hammer, which somehow managed to hit Lyon instead of the stupid staff. Pretty soon the entire coalition, sans Lucy who stayed tucked up against Macbeth but including Erik, were brawling with each other while trying and failing to catch the witch doctor staff. Apparently the thing wasn't really dangerous without it's master, because her newest brother did nothing about the situation other than chuckle.

Lucy was incredibly happy. Erik was coming home. His family was free and coming home with him, and she got to claim at least one of his brothers as her own. The coalition had succeeded in destroying the Oracion Seis, as five out of six members had simply ceased to exist and the sixth was very captured. Everything was perfect.

XxXxXxXxX

Till tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3 Instincts

**CoLu Week Bonus Day: Dance**

Well known types of **Dance** include: disco, waltz, rhamba, tango, break dancing, swing, cha cha, ballet, ballroom, tap, jive, salsa, hip hop... horizontal...

 **XxXxXxXxX**

The events following the capture of Brain, aka Master Zero, had been... complicated. There was so much Lucy had just not seen coming. Erik hadn't heard most of it coming either. They had managed to avoid the council's unwelcomed involvement, but only just barely.

Turns out Jellal had survived the destruction of the tower and was being kept in a box. Also, according to Brain, via Erik, Wendy was the only one who could heal him. They had held off on this, for obvious reasons, until the guild masters were consulted. Since letting him die hadn't been an option for the light guilds, he had been revived with great caution, only to discover his memories were completely gone. The only thing he would talk about was destroying Nirvana. Erik couldn't hear him to confirm his honesty, so they had left him in his box. Erza was beside herself. Her distress was the only thing that brought about an emotional reaction in the man, which Lucy privately considered validation of his words.

Hibiki was the one to suggest interrogating the Enemy before contacting the council. They were all glad he had when they discovered evidence of the existence of a very alive and very confused Ultear in Brain's memories. Gray and Lyon had tried to kill the man for the pain he had caused to both their late master and the woman who should have been their sister. Jura and Lucy managed to stop them, though he lost several fingers and a couple toes to frostbite beyond Wendy's ability to heal.

When they escorted Wendy to her guild it had been revealed that the poor girl's entire guild had been an illusion. She had been devastated. Erza, fresh from the distress that was 'the Jellal thing' had taken the girl under her wing and was going to be taking her home. Wendy's old guild master, the last of the nirvits, had helped them unlock Nirvana, so that they could destroy it. The travel from the Woodsea to Cait Shelter and back again had taken quite a bit of time, but the coalition was relieved to have the dark magic put to rest, so to speak.

Brain had been turned over to the council. Cobra, Midnight, Angel, Racer, and Hoteye had been reported, by the unflappable and trustworthy Jura, as being 'no more'. The council chose to believe that ment dead and no-one corrected them. Lucy's new 'shadow family', as Gray had called them, had stayed out of sight during that interaction. Erza had demanded rehabilitation custody of Jellal, who after Nirvana was destroyed seemed to accept that he would be remaining in his box for the foreseeable future, during the secret guildmaster's conference, so he was kept a secret too.

The traveling survivors of the Tower had been contacted at the earliest opportunity. Richard and Wally had both cried. Turns out Sawyer and Millianna were cousins, though Millianna had been to young to remember anything much from before their capture. The three of them had started back to Fiore before the call had even ended and would be in Magnolia as soon as possible.

Master Makorov had been given a warning to pass on to the rest of the guild regarding trauma, drama, and personal space. Lucy's shadow family had been given a warning about the likelihood that Fairy Tail would forget, or just straight up ignore, the warning they had been given. Due in small part to those warnings, and in large part to the vigilance of the responsible members of Team Natsu and Erik, there was only one personal space related fight.

The single fight was caused, probably intentionally, by the irresponsible member of Team Natsu, Natsu himself, when he took advantage of a momentary distraction to invade Lucy's personal space and blatantly rub his cheek against her hair. Her very possessive and still insecure poison slayer took offence to that. Lucy decided right then that the two would probably be at each other's throats constantly just like Natsu and Gray were, and had taken refuge from the resulting brawl with her newest brother on his magical flying cuddle carpet. Wendy had joined them and Macbeth hadn't objected, though the carpet had lost a few inches of altitude.

The biggest shock to both Lucy and Erik was Gramps announcement that Cubelios was under a curse. The entire guild had scrambled, friends were contacted, and favors called in. Before that day ended the curse on Cubelios had been broken and the new human version of Erik's best friend, Kinana, had been adopted by Mira, and Laki of all people, and bundled off, along with Sorano, for some long overdue pampering.

They managed to get a Fairy Tail seal placed on the girls before they vanished for the day. Sorano's was of course white and placed as low as her scandelously low neckline would allow. Kinana had hers in the same purple as her scales had been on her shoulder. She wasn't technically a wizard, but they all agreed she needed the protection the guildmark gave her.

The boys had theirs placed that evening as well. Richard had pushed up his sleeve to place his dark blue mark on his forearm. Lawyer's stood out in bright red on the back of his neck 'so everybody can see it when I leave them eating my dust'. Macbeth had simply replaced the black Oracion Seis mark on his right shoulder with Fairy Tail's. Erik had placed his in a color matching his hair on the side of his neck. He made the most delightful purring sound when Lucy ran her fingers over it.

Levy, Freed, and Evergreen had agreed to help Lucy and Sorano create angel magic. The rest of the guild had insisted they wait until tomorrow to start on the project. Any effort on their part to start early had been met with at least one guild member forcefully re-engaging them in the welcome party in progress. Gajeel had ended up barricading the library closed to prevent them access to research material.

Erik and Lucy had eventually escaped the party. Neither one had even considered that Erik would go anywhere but back to Lucy's apartment with her. They belonged together and that was just a fact. Erik had ignored the box of death in favor or wrapping himself around Lucy in her bed and refusing to let go. They fell asleep that way, still fully dressed from the day and unwilling to move to change that. The first thought Lucy had upon waking was how glad she was that he hadn't vanished in the night.

"I missed you too, Daphne." Lucy giggled.

"You could have missed me less if you had woken me up when you came to visit." He buried his face in her hair.

"I couldn't have left if I had. I wanted to, but..."

"Your family needed you. I understand that. Just... Can you not do that again?"

"I promise I'm not leaving you ever again, Kitten."

"That sounds like a stalker threat, Erik." _Or a marriage proposal._

"Would you say yes if it was?" A threat wasn't a question so...

"Are you really asking?" She twisted around to look at him. "Is this a spur of the moment thing, or are you really talking about staying with me forever?"

"Daphne... Lucy Heartfilia, I always have and always will want to be with you. You are special in every way that is good. I will be right by your side from this moment on, unless you tell me to leave. Even then I will probably stalk you from a distance." She smiled. He might come across as a little creepy to anyone else, but that was just about the most romantic thing she had ever heard.

"I don't see how I would ever send my dragon away. That would just be silly of me wouldn't it? Especially after all the trouble I went through to get him here."

"I love you, Daphne."

"I love you too, Erik." _Can I have my hugs and kisses now? The cuddles helped, but you've got months to make up for you know._

He growled and all but attacked her. The two kisses they had shared the day he brought her to Magnolia had been sweet and gentle, filled with both of their wishes that they could make the moment last. This one was hungry and devouring. Like he had been starving for this since he had last seen her, because he had been. They both had been. Somehow he managed to shift them around without breaking their kiss so that he was lying on top of her. His weight pressing her into the mattress felt amazing and she moaned into his mouth.

"Daphne... Please..." He gasped out between kisses.

"Yes. Anything... Anything you want... Yes." He shifted to run his sharp teeth over her neck and she gasped.

"You don't even know what I'm asking." He chuckled. "It could be anything."

"I..." He sucked at her neck and ran his hands up her sides. She let out a long breathy moan and anchored her hands in his hair as if she would fly away without him. _I trust you not to ask me anything I would say no to._ He chuckled again and slipped his hands under the hem of her shirt to skim over her ribs. "Erik..." His name sounded like a prayer on her lips.

"That's a lot of trust, Kitten." He rolled his hips and she could feel his arousal pressing against her core. They both groaned. She didn't remember wrapping her legs around him, but apparently she had. "Not sure what I did to earn it, but I'll try to be worthy." His hands inched up and he laid a trail of kisses down to her collar bone. When his fingertips brushed the sides of her breasts she gasped and released his hair to tug at his jacket. _Please. Take it off. Let me feel you._ He froze.

"Daphne... I... it's... the Tower and..." She pressed a single finger to his lips before tiping his head up to meet her eyes.

"Does it bother you for me to touch you?" He shook his head. If it wasn't touch then... "We all have scars, Erik." He ran his fingers over one on her ribs, a remnant of the Phantom War. He growled, probably hearing her memory. "Scars make us who we are, both inside and out. Don't hide them or be ashamed. Not from me." He sighed and nuzzled her neck.

"I love you, Daphne, so fucking much." She giggled as he yanked his jacket off without pulling his lips from her neck. He did pull away to jerk his turtleneck over his head, leaving him in a sleeveless white shirt. He hesitated then.

"Whatever you are comfortable with baby." He made an odd draconic keening sound she had never heard before and sank back down against her to kiss her lips and then nibble at her neck. She sank her fingers back into his hair and hummed happily. "If something bothers you then you have to tell me ok? I will follow your lead in this dance." _I can't hear you like you hear me._ He nodded and she let her hands slide slowly and gently down his back, ignoring the scars she could feel even through his shirt and mentally salivating over the rippling muscles under her palms. He tensed just a little but said nothing.

She pressed her hands more firmly against him on the way back up to his shoulders and his breathing grew heavy and he fisted his hands in the sides of her shirt. _Like that do you?_ He grazed her neck with his teeth again and rolled his hips. She heard a warbling pleading noise and it took her half a second to realise it came from her. _My shirt. You can take it off if you want. Please..._ She felt him smirk against her skin before he tore the tube top in half. "Well shit. I'm glad that wasn't one of my favorites." He sat up on his knees and gazed at her lying there with her strapless bra just barely keeping her contained. His intense purple eyes had this slightly glazed look to them.

"You should probably point out your favorites so that doesn't happen to them." Mavis, the rough edge to his voice just sent a jolt strait to her unmentionable places. "Later." She giggled. His eyes flicked up to hers and back down again. "Take it off for me, Daphne." He was placing this choice entirely in her hands. It sounded like a demand, but she knew It was really a request, a question. She didn't even hesitate.

His breath hitched as she reached behind her to unclasp her bra and toss it across the room. He growled and started to lean forward then stopped. He seemed to be having some sort of internal debate with himself. _You know you are going to win this argument right?_ He looked into her eyes and smirked. "Cheeky kitten. I love that fire in you. It's why I first stopped to listen to you. In Hargeon."

He reached for the bottom of his last shirt, hesitated again, then closed his eyes and slowly pulled it off. Her brain short circuited when presented with all that glowing caramel skin. She reached for him, but stopped just short of touching him when she realized his eyes were still closed and he was trembling. Her all hearing dragon was afraid, of her.

"Erik." _I'll start where you already feel safe, ok? Just so you know you are absolutely mouthwatering._ She brushed her fingers against his new guild tattoo and when he leaned into the contact she firmed the touch. He sighed and she smiled. She slid her other hand into his hair and then, on impulse, ran her thumb over his ear. He purred. _I love it when you make that sound. Your ears are sensitive huh?_ He nodded just a little. She used both hands to hunt for how he liked his ears touched the most.

While he was at least a little distracted by that she glanced down at the skin he had bared. Smaller scars were scattered over his chest and abdomen, most of which seemed to be small, simple battle scars like she would find on any Fairy Tail wizard including herself. She saw one crossing his belly though that was rougher, harsher, as though it hadn't been cared for properly. If she had to guess she would say it was where the dragon slaying lacrima had been... forced into him. If Brain wasn't already locked up she would try again to kill him, and succeed this time. She should have let Gray and Lyon have him.

She tried to focus most of her thoughts on the purring sound he was still making as she played with his ears as she continued to let her eyes drift. There were scars wrapping around his sides from his back. A whip. Him picking hers out when they first met made a lot of sense now. It was a miracle he had given her the chance to explain it. The thought of the weapon she used in battle being used to harm the man she loved made her see red. The people who hurt him were lucky she couldn't get to them or she would peel the skin off of them like an orange. She glanced back up to find Erik watching her with a grin, still purring.

"I love it when you are bloodthirsty. It's sexy." She blushed. He reached up to wrap his long fingers around her wrists and slid her hands down his chest. His breathing grew labored and his eyes seemed to almost glow there was so much heat in them. He shuddered when her hands reached his abdominal muscles and she whimpered.

He growled and lunged down for a kiss trapping her hands between them. She groaned at the feel of his bare chest pressing against her skin. He was so warm, and just... perfect, and she needed more. She arched her back to press more firmly against him and his growl grew in strength as his mouth moved back to her neck. Mavis, that sound, it just, drove her crazy.

His large hands quickly ran over her bare skin from her waist, over her ribs, and she moaned when he finally reached her breasts and lightly squeezed. Her hands had escaped from between them and found their way to his back without her permission, but he didn't seem to mind. He flicked a thumb over one of her nipples and a high pitched keening sound escaped her. She rolled her hips, rubbing her aching core against the erection still trapped In his pants. He hissed through his teeth.

Her little skirt had ridden up around her waist and only her very wet panties were covering her important bits at this point. She very much wanted them both completely naked right now. Virgin nerves seemed to be nowhere in sight. There was just Erik. She was so hot. She needed him so badly.

"Stars..." _Erik!_ "Please..." _I want you._ "More." She unwrapped her legs from around him and started tugging her skirt down. He chuckled at her and shifted. She thought he was helping, or at least cooperating, until he settled back down with his weight centered on her hips. _Fuck! Really?_ He had pinned her skirt in an even worse spot since she had been working it down from her waist. She was fucking wearing the thing again.

"Erik!" _What the hell is your... Oh!_ "Shit!" She hadn't realized that his shifting had put his face even with her breasts until he sucked one nipple into his mouth. Her hands were in his hair again. He growled again and she could feel the vibrations through his sharp teeth as he rolled her other nipple between his fingers. "Stars!" _Yes! Please!_ His other hand was at her hip rubbing the most amazing circles just inside her hip bones. "Fuck!" He tugged with his fingers and that high keen escaped again. He released her nipple from his mouth with a pop and ran his hand down past her waist to her hip. He began rubbing his cheeks against her breasts and she loved it.

"Daphne... My Daphne... I love you... Lucy... Kitten... Mine..." He continued to move down her body. Rubbing and kissing and nipping. Inch by absolutely delicious inch.

"Yes. Yours. Always." _Erik!_ "Erik. I love you. Baby, please!" _Let me hold you!_ She could only reach his hair at this point. He grasped her panties on his teeth and growled. She gasped as she realized he had gotten her skirt off without her noticing. _Damn you're good baby._ His eyes flashed and he gave her panties a tug. "Do it!" _Tear them the fuck off, Erik!_ He did and they put the most amazing pressure on her clit, along with everything else, right before they snapped. She whimpered at him, pleading. _Please, Erik._ "Come back." _I need you._ She really didn't care how much she had heard her first time would hurt. She needed Erik inside her.

He did the opposite of coming back. He got off the bed entirely and backed away. She almost cried before she saw him pop the button on his pants open. _Hell yeah. Get that sexy ass naked, climb back in this bed, and fuck me till I pass out._ He smirked at her and seemed to move slower. Lucy hoped it was just her imagination otherwise she was going to have to kill him.

She took those moments of teasing anticipation to run her eyes over the delicious caramel skin and lean muscles that were her Erik. Hers. She had no intention of letting him go, ever, and it would take a special kind of idiot to choose to send him away.

Prompted by the primal part of her that had awakened at Erik's touch, she pushed up on her elbows just a little and grinned. He froze with his thumbs in his waistband, just shy of the final inch that would bare him to her eyes, likely hearing what had run through her head. Slowly she pulled her knees up and spread her legs. He held his breath the whole time. Where she found the courage to straight up show a man, even this man, her pussy she didn't know, but judging by the heat in his eyes and the growl she felt all the way to her bones he liked it.

She shifted her weight and crooked a finger at him, and in the blink of an eye his pants were gone and he was back. His hands slid over her skin as if he couldn't touch enough at one time, and his mouth moved over hers in devouring kisses. She wasn't any different. Her fingers searched for skin they hadn't touched yet, and he just tasted so damn good.

When she realized his erection was pressed against her belly she couldn't stop herself from snaking her hand between them to touch him, especially since he growled and rolled his hips when the idea went through her head. He sucked in a noisy breath and jerked a little when her fingers brushed down his length. _Let me?_ He groaned and buried his face in her neck. He nipped and sucked as he held himself with just enough space between them for her to explore.

His skin was so soft, like velvet, and he was so hard. She wrapped her hand around him and gave a light stroke. He rocked his hips and made a pleading whine. _More?_ He growled with his teeth against her throat. _And harder? I can do that._ She got a splendid reaction when she did. He groaned and moved his body to the rhythm she set. She changed it up a couple times till she had him gasping for breath. She liked that. Liked that she had the power to put him in that state.

Suddenly he jerked away from her and slid down her body. _What on..._ He threw her legs over his shoulders and buried his face in her crotch. _Holy stars!_ He nipped and licked and sucked and his tongue was inside her and it was just so fucking amazing. When her hips bucked up off the bed he wrapped his hands over her hips to hold her down. He purred, so he must have liked her reactions. _Fuck! Yes!_ "Erik!" _Please!_ He ran a fang over her clit and she came so hard she saw stars. Her head slammed back into the mattress and she groaned.

 _Erik._ She reached for him blindly. As amazing as she felt right now she _needed_ him in her arms. Then suddenly he was there, raining little kisses down on her face and his hands were everywhere. The hard heat of his cock was rubbing against her still spasming sex, drawing out her orgasm. The thought fluttered through her mind that if this killed her it would be ok with her. Erik's gasping chuckle said he heard and agreed with her.

"Please. Daphne." She held him close and tried to return his kisses.

"Yes. Anything, remember?" He pulled his hips back and she felt the tip of his cock at her entrance. She knew how this worked. She knew he would fit inside her, but the idea was still intimidating. He wasn't small and she had never...

"I don't want to hurt you, Kitten." She lifted her hips to press against him and he moaned.

"It's ok. It only hurts once, and I want this. I want you, Erik." He kissed her sweetly and slowly pressed forward. There was a pinch and she definitely felt the stretch, but... _So fucking good, Erik. Wow._ "Yes, baby, Please!"

"Daphne!" He groaned out between clenched teeth. "Daphne, my Daphne. You feel so good." He shuddered when he stopped moving. "I love you so much. You have no idea." She left one hand on his back, holding him tightly to her. The other drifted up to play with his ear.

"I can imagine, can't I? If it's anywhere close to how much I love you I'm a very lucky girl."

"Mine."

"Yes, yours. Only yours. Now move." _Please!_ Her dragon growled and began to move inside her. She gasped at the sensation. It was just...perfect. It was gentle and sweet, but she knew as beautiful as it was they both needed more. "Erik. Please. More." Still he hesitated, so she wrapped her legs around him and slammed her hips up. They both groaned. "Erik, fuck me like the dragon you are. You know I can take it."

That did it. His fingers tightened on her hips and the intensity was just... Wow. She was pretty sure she heard herself saying words, but she had no clue what they were or why she was saying them. She felt herself teetering on the edge and he pulled her up to sit in his lap where he knelt on the bed. She tried desperately to hold back her screams of ecstasy to spare his ears.

"It's... It's ok... Daphne... Let me... Hear you." She let go. Then she heard him say her name, her real name, and she came apart, screaming in his arms. She felt him sink his teeth into her neck. It didn't hurt. Her nerves were to overloaded with pleasure for that. She did notice it though.

When her brain started functioning again they were lying on her bed, still gasping for breath. Erik's forehead was pressed to hers. His eyes were closed, but there was a soft smile on his lips. _I'm glad we aren't dead. Means we can do that again._ He chuckled and opened his eyes. _I love your eyes. They're so beautiful._ He purred and went to nuzzle her neck. He never made it that far. Those beautiful purple eyes widened.

"Well shit." If she had been slightly less than utterly satisfied and exhausted she would have been worried by his tone.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He mumbled the rest. "I hope."

"What does that mean?"

"You know how Salamander does weird shit just because of his magic?"

"The dragon slaying magic? Yeah. So do you."

"Yeah, which reminds me. We should get a bigger place. Like a house. With a basement."

"I know you are trying to distract me, but I will humor you. Why do we need a basement?"

"So I can put shit in it."

"Like what?" _I might have been intimidated by that glare if you weren't blushing._ He ducked his head and buried his face in her ample bosom. _What kind of shit are you putting in our theoretical basement, Erik?_

"Nothing important, just trinkets and shiny shit. Maybe the occasional soft, fuzzy thing. Maybe." He had mumbled so quietly she almost didn't hear. She blinked a couple times.

"Erik, do you have a... a dragon hoard?"

"...maybe."

"With shiny trinkets and... stuffed animals?" He didn't answer with words, but he did growl at her. "Oh that's so precious!"

"No it's not." _So if I buy you a fuzzy purple teddy bear will it go into your hoard?_ He tipped his head to the side like a little puppy, still hiding against her chest. _It will won't it?_ He growled and tried to burrow deeper into her cleavage.

"So. What was so terrible you were willing to reveal your teddy bear obsession to avoid talking about it?" He wilted a little. He moved up to rest his head on the pillow and look in her eyes.

"You know the instincts come with the magic. Problem is, unlike Salamander and Black Steel, I didn't have a dragon to teach me _why_ I'm doing this shit. I just do something because it feels right and I don't even realize how fucked up it is until afterward. Usually when Sorano slaps me for it." She giggled at the thought. "It's not really that funny. She hits hard. Anyway..." He closed his eyes. "This time, not only do I not know why I did what I did, I don't even know what it is I did, and it might be really important." His eyes popped open and she could see how agitated he was. "But I don't fucking know, because the stupid magic doesn't fucking tell me!"

"Easy, baby." She slid her hands over his cheeks to his ears. He calmed down almost immediately and even started purring. "What is it that happened?" He ran his fingers over her neck with this odd look in his eyes. "Is this about you biting me? It didn't hurt and it doesn't bother me."

"Not... exactly. Maybe? I don't know."

"You lost me." He sighed and rolled out of bed.

"Come on. I'll just show you." She let him pull her up, suddenly very conscious of the fact that they were both naked as the day they were born. With one hand on her bathroom curtain he paused and glanced at her. "Just try to remember that I didn't do this shit on purpose." Now she was getting nervous. The naked thing wasn't helping.

He led her into the bathroom and stood behind her as she looked in the mirror. She was covered in little bite marks and hickeys, but that wasn't a panic level dragon instinct type thing. She opened her mouth to ask him, again, what was going on and then she saw it. She had a tattoo . Not just any tattoo either. This was a beautiful, stylized dragon that curled and swirled all along one collar bone and up the side of her neck, where one claw seemed to be holding her ear, and back down so that its head rested just under her jaw. There would be no way to hide it, even if she wanted to. It was a bright, vibrant purple and in the claw not on her ear it was clutching what she could swear was a daphne flower.

"Well it's beautiful."

"Yeah." He drug out the word like it weighed as much as a house.

"And we don't know what it means or what it does, right?"

"Not a fucking clue."

"Ok. How does it make you feel?"

"Frustrated as shit! Did you miss that?"

"I mean aside from that. Your instincts put it there so it has a purpose. We are talking about instinct here not thought. When you look at it what do you feel?"

"...I..." He ran his fingers over it as he looked at their reflection. He had that look again. Lucy wasn't sure what it ment, but it wasn't frustration. "Happy. Like if I wasn't so afraid it was doing something to you I would say it belonged there. And... smug. I'm badass enough to admit I know what that feels like." She giggled at his smirk. It did look decidedly smug. The smirk fell away and he looked confused. "And... Like... I don't know what it is. Like when you wake up after a good night's sleep wrapped up in warm blankets and you aren't hungry yet and you know you don't have to get up."

"Content? Safe?"

"I wouldn't know, Daphne. Those aren't exactly things my family has ever... been." She turned in his arms to hug him. _Well you can be now. Fairy Tail will make sure of it._ He held her tight. "Thank you."

"So if we ignore your brain panicking the mark feels like a good thing? Then I'm not worried." He snorted at her. "We can ask Natsu about it." He growled threateningly. When she glanced up at him he looked confused as to why he had made the sound. "I take it instinct doesn't want to talk to Natsu?" He rolled his eyes at her.

"Instinct doesn't want Natsu anywhere near you. Which doesn't make any sense, because I never felt that way before and, aside from the fact that he is a world class moron and his cat is annoying enough to eat, I don't really have a problem with the guy."

"Ok, what about..." This time his growl was bone-chillingly vicious and his eyes meant it. She did the ear rubbing thing that had calmed him down earlier and it seemed to help. He nuzzled into her neck where her new tattoo rested and seemed to just breathe her scent. She kept her fingers on his ears. "So we aren't talking to Gajeel either."

"Guess not." He still sounded tense.

"Did you feel that way about him before?"

"I'm not ok with what he did to you, but I heard him. He's been through shit. I don't hold it against him, and I didn't want to tear his throat out with my teeth till you thought about him just now."

"Ok. Two strikes. What about Wendy?" He did the puppy dog thing.

"Lil Breezy?"

"Umm... Yes?"

"What about her?"

"If I let go of your ears are you going to get the urge to pull her hair out, or can we talk to her? She's young, but if this is a dragon thing she might have answers."

"I'm not going to hurt a kid, Daphne!"

"I know that, baby. We're dealing with instinctual shit we don't understand. I'm finding us answers, ok?" He nodded. "What about Erza? She isn't a kid. Wanna tear her throat out?"

"No?"

"Ok. Gray?" A growl. "Levy?" Silence. "How about Macbeth." He growled then jerked his head back to stare at her in shock. "So we are dealing with some draconic possessive jealousy thing."

"I guess."

"Is it because..." She couldn't say it out loud. _Is it because we had sex?_ This time he was the one blushing.

"This never happened before..." Of course. Because a guy didn't get that mind-blowingly good at sex without a little practice. "I'd apologise but you appreciated it." _Damn right I did._ He rested his forehead against hers and cradled her face in his hands. "It's beyond better with you though." _How so?_ "Well to start with I'm not paying you."

"Ew!"

"Really though it's... I trust you, Daphne. You aren't just a back alley fuck. You are my everything."

"I love you, Erik." He purred and rubbed his cheek against her hair.

"I've never even taken off my jacket when I was with a woman before you, Kitten. I don't want you thinking you aren't special. I didn't think I would ever find someone. If I had known you were out there I would have waited for you." A tear fell from her eye and he kissed it away before she could even figure out why it was there. "How about we get dressed and eat breakfast. Then you can call Erza and have her bring Wendy over?"

They tossed on the most basic of clothes and started in on breakfast. Lucy tried to fry a pile of bacon, but couldn't get more than a few pieces to stay on the plate. She was used to fending off Natsu when cooking, but Erik's fingers were faster than the fire slayer's. She had just chased her snickering dragon off with a spatula when she heard a thump from the direction of her bed and realized she had forgotten to lock her window. They both turned to find Natsu and Happy staring at them curiously.

"Hey, Luce. We didn't realize you had company. I couldn't smell anything over the bacon." Lucy eased herself between the slayers and leaned against Erik's chest. He was tense, but he wasn't growling. Yet. That was good right? Natsu sniffed the air and looked confused until his eyes landed on her new purple tattoo. His eyes grew wide. "Shit. My bad. I didn't realize... Happy we need to leave. I'll explain later." Erik sucked in a breath and his hands on her waist spasmed. She wondered what he had heard from her friend. Natsu slowly backed toward the window. "You guys didn't say anything. I can warn the others off, but a little warning would have been nice."

"Stay." Erik said, just as Natsu was about to follow Happy out the window. "She needs to know what you do." Natsu looked confused. "I'm ok. I can handle you being here for a little while."

"Why can't you just tell her?" Erik didn't answer right away, instead leading Lucy back to the stove.

"He hasn't eaten yet. We are going to need more bacon. Have a seat man. Hey cat!"

"What do you want?"

"You need to go to the guild and tell Iron-breath I bit Daphne."

"What! Why would you bite Lushy? I know she's fat, but she isn't for eating!" Erik growled.

"Happy." Natsu had his serious face on. "He's right. Go talk to Gajeel and the guild. I'll catch up." Happy looked skeptical, but complied. "Can I come sit down, or should I stay here?" Erik gestured for him to sit. Natsu, in an unprecedented display of patience, sat silently and waited. Lucy tossed more bacon in the skillet and leaned back against Erik, who wrapped an arm around her and took in a lungful of her scent before speaking.

"You know I got my dragon slaying magic from a lacrima. That means I got all of the magic, all of the instincts, and none of the why or reasons behind it." Natsu didn't seem to get what that meant. "Let me put it this way. I was eleven when we learned that people running triggered my prey drive. We were playing tag and Sawyer almost died." Natsu blanched. Lucy nuzzled into Erik's chest and he purred at her.

"So, last night..."

"This morning actually. You are lucky you slept in."

"Ok. This morning. You didn't know what you were starting when you bit her?"

"I didn't even know I was going to bite her until I did."

"Oh. Well... Congratulations I guess."

"Umm... Why?"

"My magic decided since I loved you we should be tied together for all of eternity, mind, body, and soul. Sorry, Kitten. Looks like you are stuck with me."

"Oh..."

"You don't have to apologise to her. The mating only takes if she wants it to. She loves you back. If I wasn't certain of that we would be having a different conversation right now." Natsu's grin was... dark.

"Well there you have it I guess. Now what? Are we just magically married?"

"No. First of all it's deeper than that. Once the bond sets you will be able to sense each other, share emotions, even use some of each other's magic. It's a strong enough connection that if one of you dies the other will too. If the shock of a mate's death doesn't kill their partner outright they lose the will to live and waste away in a matter of days. They die too, weeks later at the most."

"Once it sets? What does that mean?"

"It means we need to stay here for about a week, or I might kill any man who so much as looks at you."

"How are you handling Natsu being here then?"

"I'm kin. He can smell it. Kinship is part of the mate bond. You being mated makes me his kin too. It's not just Erik who gets that way either. The magic will get to you too, Luce. It won't be as strong, but if some chick flirted with him you..." Lucy growled at the idea before Natsu could even finish his explanation. She was horrified and slapped both hands over her mouth as if that would contain the sound. Erik purred at her.

"What did I say about you being bloodthirsty..."

"That's my cue to leave. I'll have Wendy bring by some groceries so you two don't starve. She's young enough to not be seen as a threat." He paused in the window to grin at them. "Have fun fucking like rabbits. I'll make sure you get some potions from the old bat so you don't end up getting pregnant like the magic wants you too." Lucy threw the spatula at him, but missed when he dropped out of sight.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Erik turned the stove off.

"What?" He tossed her over his shoulder. "Erik! What has gotten into you? She heard him close and lock her window. "Put me down!" He dropped her onto the bed and dove in after her. She couldn't stay mad. Not after he touched her.

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End CoLu Week

Now that this is a story... I will be considering any scene or pov requests.


	4. Chapter 4 Mystogan

(Edited/completely bloody rewritten because I'm an idiot 9/12/18)

Due to the almost overwhelming love this set of stories received during CoLu Week I'm continuing the tale. Hope you enjoy. Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail.

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Erza sat across the table from Fairy Tail's new amnesiac version of 'Mystogan', eating cake and twitching. It was odd thinking of him by that name, but, as Lucy had pointed out last night, the real Mystogan wasn't ever actually seen and their new Mystogan was a wanted criminal if they ever admitted who he really was. Mystogan himself had been contacted and agreed to the ruse, at least for the time being. The entire guild had agreed that, unless he reverted to his psychotic criminal persona, they would be forgetting that Jellal survived the destruction of the Tower of Heaven. He was Mystogan now and had the Fairy Tail stamp in dark blue on the pale skin of his forearm to prove it.

Poor Wendy was beside herself with the confusion over the identity of 'her' Jellal and the real Mystogan hadn't bothered to clear anything up. Of course the Mystogan they had on hand couldn't help her because he new nothing about himself. Erza loved having a little sister and had moved her into her apartment with her. They were sharing a bed for the time being. Wendy had been sitting at the table with them during breakfast, but when Macbeth sleepily wandered into the guild she had gone to talk to him.

They had temporarily lifted the 'no males allowed' rule at Fairy Hills until housing could be arranged for their new members. Mystogan was sleeping on a cot in her apartment until she could move the three of them into more appropriate housing. A couple of the other girls had doubled up so that Richard and Sawyer would have a roof over their heads. When Erza moved out her rooms would be remodeled for Kinana. There had been a single empty apartment that would eventually be Sorano's. For now she and Kinana were staying in the Straus home and Macbeth had that room. For some reason the other new guild members seemed to feel quite strongly about the sleepy wizard having his own room. Apparently Erik had gone home with Lucy. Erza wasn't sure what to do about that.

"So, Mystogan," The dark green eyes he lifted to meet hers were slightly more alert then they had been last night. "How are you feeling this morning."

"Better. At least I think I feel better. It's hard to tell. I...I get these flashes, I guess they are memories. Some of them are...bad, but some of them..." Her eyes widened when he reached across the table to curl a lock of her hair around his finger. "some of them are good. Erza Scarlet." Scarlet. Was he remembering, remembering that he had given her that name, for the color of her hair? "I know I've done terrible things. I shouldn't be here. You should have given me over to the Rune Knights, instead you and your guild is protecting me." He drew his hand back, releasing her hair. "Why?"

"Fairy Tail believes in second chances. Lucy thinks, and the Master and I would like to believe, that you deserve the chance to try again now that you have been freed from whatever spell polluted your mind last time we met. I also know that in the end it was you who pulled me from the ethernano when the Tower exploded." He gave her a small smile. Not like the real, happy ones she remembered from their childhood but at least it wasn't false like she had seen him give as 'Seigrain'.

"Gajeel! Gajeel!" Happy seemed to be panicking.

"Shut it you stupid cat! Why are you screaming at me?"

"Natsu said to tell you! I think it was really important!" Gajeel just growled, so Master took over his side of the conversation.

"Tell us what, Happy? What happened?"

"Well we slept in this morning and Natsu was sad, because we missed Mira's breakfast, so we decided to go see if Lucy would cook for us. There was bacon, but they didn't share with me." The blue cat drooped. Erza stood and walked over to where the cat stood on a table.

"Happy, we need you to focus. Are Lucy and Erik alright? Where is Natsu?"

"Erza," She looked over at Master Makarov when he spoke. "If Happy was sent with a message maybe we should hear it first."

"Indeed. The message, Happy, what is it?"

"Umm..." He stared vacantly off into space. Erza knew that look. "I don't remember." She could feel her anger swelling. If her family was in danger and they came to harm due to his inattention he was going to suffer.

"Happy," Gray snapped, likely just as impatient as Erza herself. "We need you to remember. You went to Lucy's house for breakfast. There was bacon. What happened next?"

"Bacon..." He drooled for a moment before snapping to attention. "Oh, yeah." His eyes grew wider than normal. "Erik tried to eat Lucy! I told him 'just because she is fat doesn't mean you should eat her' and he told me to go tell Gajeel. Natsu said-"

"He what!?" She ran out the guild door to rain her wrath upon the man she had trusted with her guild sister's safety. At least she tried to. The empty doorway threw her back into the building. She tried again with the same results. "What is going on? Whoever is doing this will stop at once!" She turned back to the guild and found herself looking into Macbeth's bright red eyes. Sorano, Kinana, Sawyer, and Richard stood beside him.

"Erik wouldn't harm a hair on his Daphne's head to save his life. The cat is mistaken. You aren't going anywhere near them, not like that, not while I breath."

"Lucy is safe." Sorano fingered her keys as she spoke. "There is obviously more to this story than the cat has shared."

"Are you trying to prevent me from protecting Lucy?"

"Not trying." Sawyer scoffed at her. "Erik will protect Lucy. We will protect Erik."

"Oh, Yeah!" Richard was sparkling like some of the Blue Pegasus members occasionally did.

"How dare you!"

"Shut the hell up ya idiots!" Gajeel shouted. "The cat is an idiot." That got her attention. "Erik is a dragon slayer. Ya ever think there was a reason the message came to me and not Master or you, Titania?" That was a very good point actually. "He didn't try to eat her. He bit her, claimed her as his mate."

"Mate!" She threw herself at the door again and was tossed back. "How dare he impinge her honor!"

"Oh, for Fuck's sake. She had to want it or the bond wouldn't have worked." The invisible force in the doorway threw her back again. "The mating bond is a sacred thing that binds them together body, mind, magic, and soul." She drew her sword and hacked at the doorway. Her blows all went wide and she ended up taking a chunk out of a nearby pillar. "You can't go, Erza. The bond is fresh. Bunny will tear you to pieces and dance in your blood." She had prepared another attack when his words registered.

"Lucy?"

"Yes. They will both be a little crazy for a week or so, till the bond settles. Mature, powerful female like you will be viewed by Lucy as a threat to their relationship. The dragon magic won't risk you stealing her mate. She'll kill you or die tryin. Hell, even with his kinship bond with Bunny, Salamander could be seen as a threat. Erik must have a shit ton of self control to let him stay even for a moment."

"Lucy wouldn't do that."

"Gajeel's right." Levy piped up. "If Erik and Lucy are really mates and he initiated the bonding ritual they really will get violent. They will come back to the guild when they are ready. Natsu will be able to tell us for sure when he gets here."

"I believe the young lady is right."

"Je-Mystogan?"

"While memories of my life still escape me facts and knowledge remain present. Dragons and dragon slayers select a single mate in their lifetime, one their souls will normally recognize imimmediately. The bond is an eternal one."

"Eternal..." This was a lot to take in. Mira let out a squeel.

"The babies!"

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(AN: I'm open to ideas on where this story goes if anyone wants to make requests...)


	5. Chapter 5 Dragoness

This is pretty short, but the next chapter is already well underway. Sorry I've been so quiet recently.

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A smile tugged at the corner of Erik's mouth as he felt his mate trace the scars on his chest and press sweet kisses to each one. He could sense how happy she was through the still developing bond between them. This had to be the best way to wake up, ever. Normally after they had driven themselves to exaustion he was the first one to wake up, so this was a treat.

She loved him. His Daphne really,truely loved him, despite all the shit he had done in the past. She knew a lot of it now. She had seen some of it. Shared dreams were a part of their bond apparently, and shared dreams ment shared nightmares. That had been fun. Not. He had been traumatized at what she had been forced to see, but she had just kissed him until they had both forgotten the terror that had torn them from their sleep.

 _Don't think about that while we are naked, Erik._ He chuckled at her. He only heard her now when he tried to or she wanted him to. The bond protecting both of their sanity probably. She could also block him out or hear things he sent at her too. _Actually don't think about it at all. Past is past and Cobra died with the Oracion Seis. Focus on me._

"Kinda hard-" He hissed when her hand wrapped around his cock and gave a light squeeze. _More than kinda._ "Fuck woman!" She had the nerve to giggle at him.

"That's kinda the idea." He growled and opened his eyes to look down at the golden hair spead out over his skin.

"Better be more than kinda." He slid a hand up the soft skin of her back. "You-" An explosion literally shook the building. "What the hell?" He had been beyond gratful for the runes Freed had set while Wendy was making her grocery delivery the afternoon of their first day here. They kept the noise of the town out, but now he was cursing them because he had no clue what was going on. Lucy let out a vicious snarl that was sexy enough he wanted to ignore the explosion.

"One week! Can they not go one week without destroying something?" She dropped her head to his chest with a thump. "It's probably just Natsu. If we ignore it-" The building shook again and they both tensed at the draconic roar that was powerful enough to overcome the runes. They rolled out of bed and started shoving cloths on. "What the hell have they done this time!"

Erik decided to skip the stairs and doors and simply pulled his mate into his arms and jumped out the window the instant they were decent. They didn't have to go looking for the problem. The giant, dragon-like monster surrounded by fire and shouting with Natsu's voice was pretty obvious. They took to a nearby rooftop for a better look.

"You gotta destroy this thing with me inside!"

"Well, fuck." That's really all he had to say on the matter.

"I knew it. Natsu you big idiot! He got himself eaten!"

"Oh! This is such a rush!" The female voice came from the same dragon monster Natsu's had. "This power rocks! It really takes me back!"

His kitten's growl would have been bone chilling if he were anyone else. As it was it made him shudder. She was enraged enough he heard her without even trying to. _How dare she! Bitch! I will destroy you!_ Daphne took off across the rooftops and he was barely able to keep up. Dragon instinct. A female dragon thing had interrupted their mating. He just thought it was ridiculous, but Lucy might just kill something today. As they drew closer Natsu started talking again. To himself.

"Ah! Whatever happens I can't let myself pass out. Nah. It's pointless man. You should just give up now. Don't listen to him. You're still in this. Don't give up! Who's there? Gimme a break. Like you know what Daphne's talking about!"

Daphne? He reached with his magic for the female inside the dragonoid. What he found had him recoiling mentally and growling. How dare that cackling insanity of a creature call herself by the name he had given his mate. That was no Daphne flower. That was a sick monster and he was going to tear it's heart out.

"Yes! Yes! Lizardmen 3.1 go, go, go!" Erik let out a poison dragon roar that swirled with the golden light of his mate's celestial magic. That was a new thing they hadn't noticed yet. It wiped out a huge patch of the lizardmen, clearing a path for Lucy to leap from a roof with an enraged scream and slam into the side of the monster's head. It rocked back a bit, giving Erik a perfect shot at the glowing red lacrima in it's chest. He could hear Natsu inside. He poured magic into his claws and jumped, landing on the creature's chest and digging into the softer flesh around the lacrima. His magic wasn't the brute force kind, so he didn't excpect he could crack it open, but he could damn sure tear it out. He could hear his mate above him, screaming like the dragoness she was.

"How dare you! You dare come here claiming to be a dragon! Disrupting my bonding with my mate! You have threatened my family! Give Natsu back! You want to see a dragon! Fine! I'll send you to Draco myself!" Erik snarled and began tearing chunks from the beast that had challenged his mate. "Survey the Stars, Open the Heavens. All the stars, far and wide. Show me thy appearance. With such shine. Oh Tetrabiblos. I am the ruler of the stars. Aspect become complete. Open thy malevolent gate. Oh 88 Stars of the heaven..." Erik tore the huge lacrima from the monster's chest and flung it away. He heard it shatter when it hit the ground, releasing Natsu. He lept up, using his momentum to swing by the creatures snout and land near his glowing goddess of a mate. "Shine! Urano Metria!"

Erik closed his eyes and smiled as the warmth of Daphne's magic flowed over him. He could smell his own dragon slaying magic laced with the stardust of her spell. He listened, caught her in his arms when the monster fell, and jumped down to the ground. By the time the light and the dust cleared enough for the rest of the guild to see she had tackled him to the ground and was kissing him. She pulled back to look in his eyes and grinned.

"Mine." He raised a brow at her, but couldn't help but smirk back.

"Yours."

"Damn, Luce, that was bad ass!"

"Don't anybody piss off Bunny ever again." Erik growled at Gajeel who raised his hands and took a step back.

"Lucy?" Daphne hissed at Erza and then blushed.

"Umm... Hi, Erza."

"You just slew a dragon."

"It wasn't a real dragon, and Erik is the one who tore its heart out. Or Natsu I guess. I just..."

"You crushed it under a shit ton of stars, Daphne." She blushed and hid her face in his shoulder.

"Question?" Erik looked up to see a wide awake Macbeth smiling at them. It was a real smile too so Fairy Tail must have been being good to him. "What brought you two out here enraged enough to slay a monster none of us could scratch in about fifty-five seconds." Erik grinned.

"The instinct of a dragoness." Macbeth tipped his head to the side and eyed Daphne.

"Does this mean you are returning to the land of the living?"

 _Daphne? What do you think?_

 _I'm ok. I think. We may still be jumpy, but I miss the guild._

 _Agreed. Just don't run off and start hugging people yet._

 _Deal. I'm hungry._

"Hey, Mira! Think you can rustle up some grub for us this late at night?"

"Absolutely!"

"Awesome. In that case let's head back to the guild and mock Gray over the epic stupidity of his plan."

"This really is Gray's fault?"

"Nope. It's Natsu's."

"That's what I thought."

"Well," Everyone turned to look at the master. "While that did not al all turn out the way I expected I am very proud of you both. You are truely Fairy Tail wizards. Just look at the mess you made! Do you know how much its going to cost to fix this! You crazy brats!" Erik couldn't help but laugh along with the rest of the guild.

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To be continued.


	6. Chapter 6 Friends

Told you this chapter was well underway. Tada! And yes, the actual Festival will be addressed in it's own chapter.

Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail. Duh.

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"Heed my words dear friends." Erik smirked at their tiny guildmaster as he stood on the bar making his speach. "If you fancy yourself a member of this guild you must hone your skills both day and night. Do so and fortune will always be yours. Never forget you are responsible for your own keep. While many of your days will be sunny others will be clouded with hardship. Peace and prosperity tempered by tragedy and heartbreak. However I have faith we can fight through even the darkest of days as long as we have each other. You are surrounded not by coworkers, but by an enduring and loving family. Together we are one! That's what being a Fairy Tail wizard is about!" He slapped his hands over his ears in time to not go deaf from the chear the guild let out. "I couldn't be more proud of what you kids have accomplished in the last year, so to commemorate your hard work and diligence tomorrow we will be holding the highly anticipated flower viewing party!" He barely heard Gajeel's grumble over the renewed cheering.

"Bunch of morons." He did have to agree. Makarov made the announcment as if the damn flowers wouldn't have bloomed if his wizards had slacked off over the previous year. It was stupid. The guild just wanted an excuse to drink, not that they needed it. Cherry blossoms did smell good though, and he knew Daphne was looking forward to the festival when she got back from her job.

He was restless with his mate gone, but the Shady Five, as everyone was calling his family, as well as "Mystogan" were sticking close to the guild and staying out of sight until the memory of the Seis died down. In the mean time they were supposedly helping the little group of researchers find Sorano her new magic. They were having trouble though. Celestial spirit wizards were holder type wizards so caster spells were extremely difficult for Sorano to learn. They had gone through a ton of books and were pretty stymied at this point. Erik was sure Daphne and her Northern Cross spirit would get the ball moving again as soon as they got back.

The preparty party was getting really loud really fast. He could have gone up onto the balcony where it was quieter, but Gajeel was up there. His brain knew the man regretted what he had done to Lucy while he was with Phantom Lord. He knew Jose was the same type of man Brain was. Evil. He still had a dislike of the man. He had hurt his mate after all, bad enough there were still marks on her body. He tolerated the man being in the guild, but that was about it. He couldn't stay down here in the noise and he wouldn't go up there so he quietly left the building. He didn't make it very far before he was startled by a guildmate's voice.

"Hey man. You aren't supposed to be wandering off on your lonesome. Cosplayer would kick us all into next week if you got yourself picked up." He bared his teeth and growled at the seith mage but didn't stop walking. The guy freaked him the hell out. Not only had he hurt his Daphne while he wore the Fairy Tail guild mark, but Erik couldn't hear him at all. He didn't know if the man had regrets about what he had done. He didn't know jack from shit because he hadn't heard a single sound of what was going on inside the man. "I get you don't like me, not that you like anybody but your team and your mate. I don't blame you. I'm still not letting nakama get picked up by rune knights." Erik growled again low in his throat. The asshole grinned at him. "Sometimes you really remind me of Laxus." That brought him to a complete stop. He glared at the grinning man.

"Are you seriously comparing me to the man who betrayed his guild, had my mate turned to stone, and gave the order to kill her when she escaped?" Bickslow stopped grinning.

"How much do you actully know about Laxus?"

"He's a powerful asshole, and a traitor who harmed my Daphne."

"He's a slayer without a dragon." Erik flinched. "Yeah. You know how that is, don't you? Know who shoved the lacrima into him through his eye socket? His dad." Erik's eyes widened a little. How could someone do that to their own child? "You had Cosplayer when shit got to be to much. He didn't have somebody like that. He had us, but we've got our own issues. He's not as bad a guy as you think he is." Erik took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders. His back itched. It tended to do that when something made him nervous.

"You know where he went when he left?" Bickslow gave a small smile.

"Bosco. I've got a sister and a brother who are slayers. They are helping him straighten his shit out."

"If you had family who understood why didn't you help him?"

"Gimme a break man. They were, like, younger than Wendy when I had to leave and it's fucking illegal for them to talk to me."

"What! Why?"

"My magic. Seith magic manipulates the souls of the living and the dead. I was born with it but it still means a death sentance back home."

"That sucks balls."

"Yep. Big hairy ones." Erik snorted.

"Well-" He spun to look in the direction of the train station when he heard the unmistakable sound of his mate's male team members bickering."Daphne." He took off without another thought to the man he had been talking to.

"Hey! Don't get yourself arrested before you find her!"

 _Erik! I'm home!_

 _Not yet you aren't. Not till you're naked in my arms._

 _Down dragon. I'd rather not give Natsu a nosefull._

 _I missed you so much._

 _I haven't even been gone for twenty four hours._

 _You were gone for Hours!_

 _Silly dragon._

 _I couldn't hear you and I worried. Your team is nuts._

 _They love me._

 _Still nuts. I can hear them._

 _The whole town can hear them most days._

Erik vaulted over the luggage tower he knew to be Erza's and scooped his mate up to spin her around as soon as his feet hit the ground. Her delighted squeal made his heart flutter like a jar full of butterflies. Gray and Happy made obnoxious comments, but he could hear how thrilled the whole team was at her happiness. He noticed how cold her skin felt and set her down with a scowl.

"Why are you so damn cold?"

"Lucy got caught in an avalanche when we were attacked by a wyvern. I healed her the best I could, but we should get her somewhere warm." He took the time to pat the littlest dragon slayer on the head. He liked Lil Breezy. Her cat was a bit of a bitch sometimes, but the girl was a good kid.

"Come on,Kitten." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and started walking. "Let's get you home." _I have just the thing to warm you right up._

 _That's not what she ment._

 _So? Are you objecting to me burying my face in your pussy until you writhe and beg me to fuck you?_

 _No, but... I was supposed to help Sorano with her magic when I got back._

 _The guild is already drinking for tomorrow's flower party. Nobody is going to work on Soprano's stuff until they sober up from that._

 _I'm so excited about the festival tomorrow!_

"See ya at the guild later, Luce!"

"Bye, guys!" Daphne waved sweetly at her team before they walked up the stairs to her little appartment. "You go house shopping while I was gone?"

"I was thinking... What about building our own house." She stopped in the middle of making coffee to stare at him. "We could put it out of town a ways. It would give is a little privacy and we could make it just the way we liked it. Richard would help us dig the basement out, and I bet some of your guildmates would-"

"Our guildmates." He rolled his eyes at her.

"Fine. Our guildmates. I bet they would help out at least a bit. And it would save us money in the long run. I just-" She cut him off with a kiss.

"You don't have to convince me sweetheart. I like the idea. We can talk to the guild after they recover from the festival. Which reminds me... How is Macbeth handling all the daytime chaos? I really havent gotten to hang out with him much since we came home, between our mating and having to take this mission to cover rent." He loved the woman in his arms so much. She had embraced her offer to be Macbeth's sister with a passion.

"He's ok. The rest of the guild has been really good to all of them. People go out of their way to help them feel at home. Those three...colorful ones especially. The Thunder Legion. I actually... Um. I wasn't exactly very nice to them."

"Erik..."

"But. But I had a talk with the one who tried to suck out your soul and... I think I'm ok with them now. Laxus was like me, a dragonless slayer, and the other three ware just... loyal. I think I might even like Jesterhead." Daphne dramatically dropped her jaw and placed a hand over her heart.

"You like someone? A human someone? I'm speachless!"

"Then why is your sexy face still speaking?"

"Because you haven't given it something else to do." He growled and tackled her onto the couch. If she wanted him to occupy her mouth he would absolutely do that. After all he still hadn't welcomed her home and she still smelled like wyvern and Natsu. That just wouldn't do.

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To be continued.


	7. Chapter 7 Macbeth

Thanks for all the super sweet reviews people. Shall we begin looking into the rest of the Shady Five and how they are adjusting to life at Fairy Tail?

Hiro Mashima never gave these guys the chance they deserved in my opinion. Which is why I'm writing this story.

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Macbeth was losing a card game against Wendy, Romeo, and Kinana when his best friend and brother came stomping into the guild looking for the little healer. He was losing because he was half asleep, at least that was his excuse. Erik was pissed off enough that it had him wide awake almost instantly. There were few things that could get him that upset, six of them were sitting in the guild perfectly safe. Something was wrong with his new sister.

"They are all bloody idiots. If she didn't make me promise not to I would poison all three of them. Daphne's sick. They dropped a mountain of snow on her and now she is sick. Fever, congestion, fucking delerium. Can you come check on her, Lil Breezy?"

"I'm not sure if I can get her well in time to see the cherry blossoms, but I'll do my best!"

"Can... Can I come visit her?" He hadn't gotten to see her last night when she got back from her mission.

"She would like that. She was asking about you last night." He couldn't hide the small smile that brought to his face. "She's talking a little off her rocker right now with the fever though."

"Why didn't you come get me last night, Erik?"

"Because she was fine last night. A little cold, but once I, er, got her warmed up a bit she seemed totally fine." Macbeth didn't even want to think about what his siblings had been doing to make Erik of all people hesitate. He was grateful for the presence of the children that caused the man to sensor his speach.

"I'm afraid we are going to have to bail on our game."

"That's ok, Wendy. Romeo and I can still play with just the two of us. Tell Lucy we hope she feels better soon."

"Yeah. I hope you can help her feel better in time for the flower viewing later." The little boy started picking up the cards and Wendy slid off Macbeth's carpet. He blamed Lucy for the little slayer's habit of cuddling up to him, not that he minded in the least. She had been the first one to curl up with him the day they came to Fairy Tail. She had declared him a top ranked cuddle buddy, though Macbeth wasn't sure what exactly that ment. A great deal of the few days she had been at the guild before going on yesterday's misdion had been spent tucked onto his carpet with him.

He left his carpet behind in Sorano's care when they left the guildhall. It drew to much attention and they were trying not to make it obvious who they were. Macbeth still hadn't explored Magnolia, since his family was trying to be invisable, so he tried to stay awake and alert while they were walking. It was a cute town and the people seemed... Happy. With the way they had grown up ha had never really seen happy people before, not up close. Fairy Tail didn't count. As much as he liked his new guildmates they were insane on a special level.

A quick glance around Lucy's apartment revealed pink, pink, and more pink. Erik glared at him when he heard him internally snickering at the idea of the man once known as Cobra and feared by darkness itself was living in such a place. Not that it was a bad thing, but it was a bit funny. What wasn't funny was the cough that came from under the mountain of pink blankets.

"Lucy. Erik says you are sick. Can I take a look? Maybe I can help you feel better."

"Wendy? Did I take you out of my suitcase? I won't remember." Lucy's voice was weak.

"Umm... I was never in your suitcase, Lucy. You have a really high fever."

"Good, because you can't eat ramen in a suitcase." Erik chuckled and headed toward the kitchen.

"Wow. You weren't joking when you said she was out of it."

"Beleive it or not there is some logic behind the crazy she is talking. She wanted to stuff Wendy in her suitcase and smuggle her home when she first met her, because she was adorable. And she is hungry. She doesn't really want ramen, just the hot broth, but I'll make her eat the noodles anyway for energy."

"I didn't know you could cook."

"It's fucking ramen, man. It isn't that complicated. Actually... I enjoy cooking now that I have the chance to learn. Having a kitchen where I don't have to worry about accidently poisoning someone helps."

"I'll take that as a warning not to eat your food."

"Not unless a slayer checks it first."

"Noooo!" Macbeth jerked when Lucy wailed, but Erik just sighed. "I wanna go!"

"Lucy, you can't. You need rest or you will just get sick again."

"But the flooooweeeers!"

"I'm sorry, Lucy!"

"Lil Breezy told her she can't go to the flower party. She was really looking forward to it and it only happens once a year apparently. You can go talk to her now. She'll fall asleep as soon as she eats this." Macbeth wandered over and took Wendy's place sitting on the edge of Lucy's bed.

"Hey, Polaris." Her face was flushed with the fever and her blond hair clung to her sweaty skin.

"Sleepy Cuddles!" Her smile wasn't as wide as it should have been and her eyes were the wrong kind of bright. "The sun is up and I can see your eyes." She started giggling. "That's so funny!"

"Freed taught me some runes to help me sleep at night. It doesn't work in the hours close to midnight, but it helps enough that I can function at least part of the day. It's a lot stronger when he writes it, but he refuses to come into Fairy Hills even though the girls said it was ok. Sometimes he waits until I leave the guildhall and writes them for me with a delay rune. I can sleep most of the night that way, but I feel bad because he has to power the runes while he sleeps."

"Rule Man is a sweet dude. Lord Justine is a huge asshole." Macbeth frowned at what sounded like two contradictory statements.

"What do you mean?"

"I know so I know. Rule Man has a diarhea puddle for a dad. Worse than mine. My dad is just a shit. Shits and dicks for dads that's all we got, the lot of us. Macao is the best dad we have and he's a lazy drunken pervert." Oh. Wow. Delerious Lucy only made a little sense, but he was pretty sure she just said she knew Freed's dad and he was even worse than hers. Considering her dad basically tried to sell her as a sex slave that was saying something.

"Wait. Freed's dad is a Lord?"

"Yep. Fully stick assed and everything. His mom is sweet like a buttermint. I like her. She's like chicken soup. That sounds yummy. Er-"

"I heard you kitten. Tell Macbeth goodbye and you can have some food."

"Bye bye, Bethy." Macbeth chuckled.

"Bye sis. Be good for Erik, ok?"

"Maybe. Maybe I can escape later so I can go see the flowers."

"There will be no escaping and you aren't going anywhere, Daphne."

"Can I leave if I suck your dick and say 'please daddy'?"

"No. Not even then." Macbeth turned and practically ran out of the room desperately wishing he hadn't heard his sister say that to his brother.

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Macbeth was a passive aggressive person. He knew this only because when Freed caught him reflecting Erza's cake away from her mouth he told him so. Once Macbeth explained why exactly he was upset with the Erza, Gray, and Natsu he joined his passive aggressive activities by writing levitation runes on all of Gray's clothes the moment they came off of his body. They changed tactics several times to avoid suspicion and even got Levy drop small Solid Script Ice into people's clothing which Gray was obviously blamed for.

Natsu actually earned Macbeth's forgiveness for his portion of their idiocy almost instantly. The slayer had asked where Lucy was the minute he walked into the guild. Wendy informing him that she was home sick and would be for the rest of the day had caused his face to fall.

"But... She will miss the festival."

"I know. I was so excited to see the rainbow blossoms for the first time with her."

"The snow made her sick, didn't it?" When Wendy nodded Natsu's whole body slumped. "We should have been more careful. If I had kept her warm better on the way home she wouldn't have gotten sick." Just like that the fire slayer escaped Macbeth's passively aggressive vengeance. He stayed at the table moping even when the others left to enjoy the day.

Wendy vanished with Kinana to do whatever normal twelve and thirteen year old girls did at festivals. It had taken the two girls all of a day to become best friends. When Erza had found a new house for her little household Kinana had moved in with them. Macbeth found that little group hilarious. There had actually been people who saw the four of them together and actually thought they were a family even though the older two were bairly old enough to have offspring at all let alone kids as old as the girls were. He guessed the super serious way they carried themselves made them seem older.

Levy was dragged off by her little fan club, Gajeel trailing along as her ever present shadow. The Thunder Legion stole Freed away though to Macbeth he seemed reluctant to go. It could have just been his imagination, since he didn't want him to go.

"Luce really wanted to see the flowers today." Macbeth blinked his eyes open and frowned at the whining fire slayer.

"Well she can't come to the festival and trees aren't the kind of flowers you can take people." Natsu slowly raised his head and stared at him with an incredibly serious expression.

"Why not?"

"Because it's a tree. They only walk in books. It's called roots."

"But... What if the roots... Weren't stuck in the ground?"

"It's a tree. They are pretty stuck. There are metaphores and sayings and proverbs about how stuck in the ground tree roots are."

"Yeah... But we are Fairy Tail wizards. We can do anything if we try!" Natsu had a huge grin on his face now. "Come on!" He was forcefully dragged from his seat. "We need to find Richard and get to the park!"

XxXxXxXxX

The three wizards stood in front of the biggest rainbow cherry tree surrounded by people.

"Natsu, how the hell are we supposed to get this tree out of the ground and moved all the way to the boat without someone stopping us?"

"You do illusions, right? So Richard will loosen it and we will carry it to the boat while you make everybody think nothing is happening."

"May the power of love strenthen us! Oh Yeah!"

"Ok. If it's for Polaris. There are a lot of people, but it's a simple illusion that is already established. I can do this."

"For Luce!"

"For Lucy! Oh Yeah!"

XxXxXxXxX

"Erik..."

"I see it too. It's not the fever making you see things."

"So there really is a rainbow cherry tree going past our window?"

"Yep."

"It's so pretty."

"..."

"Isn't it pretty?"

"Ok. The flowers are pretty."

"How do you think it got here?"

"No clue. But I have a feeling we will find out at the guild tomorrow."

XxXxXxXxX

To be continued.


	8. Chapter 8 Sorano

It's been a while so my muses and I thought we would spread a little mire Lucy Light. Enjoy.

I do not, nor will I ever, own Fairy Tail.

XxXxXxXxX

"Technically we could take bits and pieces from several different types of magic but..." Levy shrugged knowing that the others would know where she was taking that idea.

"Each magic uses different magical pathways and it would likely be to much for her body to handle." Lucy continued to shuffle through the tomes on the table, not bothering to look at the people she was talking to.

"Exactly. And since she already uses celestial spirit magic we are trying to find similar magic so that she can use something she is already accustomed to."

"The difficulty we are having at this point lies in the fact that the majority of celestial magic is kept secret. Only those who actually use the magic, such as yourself and Miss Sorano, know it's secrets."

"The magic Erza's Mystogan uses is celestial too, ya know. Heavenly body magic draws power from the stars."

"He tried reaching me a couple simple spells. It's elemental caster magic though and so completely different from what I am used to... Let's just say it would take me years to learn enough for it to be worth mentioning." Sorano didn't want to think about the two days she had spent working with Fairy Tail's resident amnesiac.

"We talked about having wings made for her to use as a holder spell, however we ran into a problem." Evergreen tapped her fan on the table as she spoke. "Bird type wings like an angel would use are so much heavier and bulkier than my delicate fairy wings. Lugging those things around all the time would be simply exausting. Not to mention making them move in any way like the real thing would consume vast amounts of magic power."

"Therefore by enabling her to fly we would essentially be preventing her from doing any other spells either for offensive purposes or in order to protect herself, as well as severely impairing her ability to engage in physical exertion of any type." Silence fell over the library as the group mulled over the lack of viable options before them.

"Maybe we could-"

"Hold that thought, Daphne! It's lunch time." Erik pulled Lucy away from the table chair and all.

"But-"

"Nope. Save it for after you eat. You too, Bluebird." When Levy puffed out her cheeks and bristled Erik smirked. "You want me to send Iron Nuts in here to drag you away from the books? I mean, I'm ok with that. The sight of you tossed over his shoulder kicking and screaming would be-" Levy threw an unlit candle at his head and ran, red-faced from the room. Of course he dodged and laughed. Evergreen huffed as she rose from the table.

"You would think with their history she wouldn't be crushing on that big grouch nearly as much as she is."

"I think he likes her back and they are adorable." Sorano rolled her eyes. Lucy thought everything was adorable. At least Happy Lucy did, and Erik was doing a pretty good job of keeping the woman happy. The feather-clad woman slowly stood and followed Evergreen and the mated couple out of the library. About thirty seconds after that she folowed Macbeth silently back into the room and hid in a corner to eavesdrop.

He stood next to Freed's chair and simply watched the rune mage continue searching through the books for a long minute before placing a finger on a page to prevent Freed from turning it. It actually took the man a couple seconds to figure out why his book wasn't cooperating. It took several more seconds for him to follow the arm the finger was attatched to up to blink at Macbeth's face.

"Come eat lunch with us? Please? You can come back down after that."

"But-"

"The others are already eating. The books will not leave while you eat. If it settles your mind you can even place runes to prevent them from being disturbed." A slow smile pulled at the corners of her mouth as she watched her adoptive brother gently herd the rune mage from the room, pausing to let the man place his silly purple runes.

Her family was so happy here. The personas they had work for so long were slowly slipping away. The dark wizards who had inspired terror and nightmares all across Fiore and beyond simply weren't there anymore. She could see it in Richard and Sawyer, and even herself, but in those two? In Erik and Macbeth it was so much... More.

Midnight had been fear itself for so long. He had smiled at the terror he inspired and laughed at the pain of his enemies. Hardened criminals had whispered that if you looked into his eyes he would devour your soul. It had been chilling even for her.

Macbeth was sweet and gentle, a favorite among the few children who came around the guild. He could often be found helping Mira around the guild, smiling and laughing. She had even seen him at the park last night, using his illusions to tell stories to the town's children as the sun set. Freed had been with him, and Sorano knew the green-haired aristocratic man was also using his own magic to help Macbeth manage his enough to begin living a normal life.

Then there was Cobra, Brain's executioner. People said if you saw him you were aleady dead. They had all done terrible things over the years, but the things she had seen Cobra do, and with his own bare hands? She actually still saw those things in her nightmares. Cobra had been so dangerous Brain himself hesitated to anger him.

Cobra was dead now, slain by a hug from a cute little blond in a miniskirt. Even now she could hear Erik laughing in the main hall with Freed and Evergreens crazy teammate who Erik had Forgiven for hurting his mate. Cobra would never forgive anyone for anything, but Erik would, and had. Erik also baked cupcakes and piped little unicorns on the top in pastel colored icing, because he thought it was funny. They were really good cupcakes too, though it had taken a lot of convincing for her to try them.

Sorano came to a decision as she sat down to lunch with her family and friends. Angel magic or no angel magic she was going to give her keys to Lucy. Her brother's mate would love them and care for them the way she never could. She had never wanted this kind of magic anyway. Every time she touched one of her keys she remember who she had killed to get that key and everyone she had killed to keep it. She had forced her spirits to kill also, and had forced them to suffer. She needed to call them out and appologize for the past before handing them over.

Lucy would make her spirits happy, and someday Sorano would find a magic that she loved. One that made her happy to use. Maybe she didn't need to be an angel. Maybe she could find something else that was beautiful and could help people. She had heard of a wizard in Bosco who used lunar magic to heal people. That sounded like a wonderful thing to be able to do.

XxXxXxXxX

They had been kept in the main hall much longer than the scholarly types had anticipated, but Sorano hadn't minded. Getting to see her family so happy was worth the wait. She taken the oportunity while they were distracted to sneak out behind the guild and call out her spirits one at a time to talk to them. Appologies were made and she had explained to each of them her plan to hand their keys over to Lucy. She had been shocked to receive a hug from shy little Aries, and was actually looking forward to passing her keys on to someone who would love them.

"Moon magic?" Levy blinked big brown eyes at her.

"I know that is caster magic as well, but... I've heard you can heal with lunar magic. That sounds... Nice." More than nice if she was honest.

"You can indeed. Bickslow's brother is the lunar dragon slayer and a powerful battle healer."

"I'm... Not a dragon slayer though." This wasn't going to work. She should have known.

"The nature of the magic could be used in the same manner without draconic influence."

"In theory. Hey! How about we ask Grampa Crux!" Lucy hopped out of her chair and pulled out her keys. "Open! Gate of the Southern Cross! Crux!" Sorano couldn't help but flinch a bit at the sound of the spirit's doorbell. "Hey Gramps Crux!"

"What can I do for you today, Princess Lucy?"

"We are researching different celestial magics. Sorano-"

"Wait!" Lucy wasn't the only one who jumped at Sorano's shout. "Wait, just." She took a deep breath. "Before we go any further I want you to have these." She placed her key ring on the table. "Regardless of whether I find a new magic or not they will be happier with you. And... And I will be happier if they are happier. I'm ready. I know my friends will keep me safe until I can protect myself again."

There were tears in Lucy's eyes as she slowly walked around the table to hug her. She was really starting to appreciate Lucy's hugs. The blond was always careful to move slowly and give Sorano plenty of time to escape or reject the close physical contact. According to her brother's mate their whole little family was 'hug starved' but she still wasn't sure exactly what that ment. It ment she got lots of hugs she knew that much.

"I'm so proud of you, Sorano. And I'm so happy you trust us that much. I promise I will take good care of them." Lucy gave her a big smile and turned back to her Crux spirit. "We are trying to find Sorano a new magic. Something that she will love. Angel magic, and lunar healing magic are both things she is interrested in. Can you help us?"

"The Archangel mages used healing magic, however that is a genetic magic and has all but died out now."

"Real angels?" Sorano felt her heart flutter at the idea, but shook her head. "But you said it is a magic you have to be born with andI wasn't. What about lunar magic? Are there lunar spells I could learn to use?"

"Yes indeed. A great many can even be used as holder spells if you were able to acquire lunar lacrima or moonstone. Weapons can even be crafted to chanel your magic. I can also help you learn some lunar caster spells Miss Sorano. As a gift for offering my fellow spirits to our princess for the sake of their own happiness." Sorano's eyes grew wide.

"R-really?"

"Can I lend her your key, Grampa Crux? Just temporarily so she doesn't have to wait around for me to learn her new magic?"

"An excellent idea, Princess Lucy."

XxXxXxXxX

A great deal of expiramentation was done over the next few days in which Erza was heavily involved. They spent most of one day behind the guildhall with Erza requipping weapon after weapon and simply handing them to Sorano one at a time to hold. Swords, staves, spears, maces, an ax with a haft longer than Elfman was tall. Quite frankly most of them were ridiculous and far to weighty and bulky for someone of Sorano's stature to use. She discovered that boomerangs were a shit ton of fun to work with however and Erza commissioned one incorporating moonstone and stellarium from her own weaponsmith.

It was Lucy who recommended something smaller, and designed for closer quarters when she saw Sorano lose her temper and slap Erik through the guild wall over an ill-timed comment about female hormones and death by moonglare. That conversation along with her slight build went round and round until Natsu suggested she become a ninja. Silly as the idea sounded it actually held some merit and produced a mound of small, sharp, deadly things.

After a great deal of discussion, several lacerated fingers, and a threat to end Bickslow's life that Sorano considered completely called for, a set of blades was commissioned. Gajeel offered to help craft the blades themselves, and seeing as how dragon iron was stronger than pretty much anything in the world Sorano accepted his offer. They would be touched up when he was done, stellarium, moonstone, and lunar lacrima artfully added. The handles would be wrapped in white leather and would fit perfectly in her hand when she made a fist. The blade curved in a U shape to double back twice the width of her hand and the arch of the blade would be notched.

Erza called them Saber Claws and said they were from Desierto. Bickslow called them Ulak and said she was the tiniest Furian ever and needed goggles. Sorano didn't know what that ment, but she slapped him anyway. It was quite the feat since the man was well over 6 feet tall and running away at the time. She got a high-five from Lucy afterwards.

"Grampa Crux? Can you tell me about the Archangels? I know I can't learn the magic, but I would like to hear about them."

"Archangel magic was created many, many years ago during a time of great struggle. They were protectors of the Celestial realm and of celestial wizards. However they were hunted down and enslaved by those they were created to protect." Sorano cringed at the idea. "There are only two Archangels with active magic remaining. The elder, Galasfriel, fled from Earthland many centuries ago."

"You mean he is in another world."

"Another plane to be precise."

"So he left to protect himself from celestial wizards who would have enslaved him?"

"That is our belief."

"And the younger?"

"His last known location was Pergrande's Skyreach Collosium." She shuddered. She had heard stories of that place. Brain had even threatened to sell them there if they dissapointed him.

"Wait, what do you mean 'last known location'?"

"The celestial world can not confirm his location when his magic is beyond his reach."

"Beyond his..." She felt cold as she realised what the spirit was saying. "He is a slave, isn't he?"

"A gladiator."

"Crux... Can we get him out?"

"I do not believe I would be of much assistance in that endevor. I am simply a research assistant and archivist." She sure couldn't do it herself. So she would do what she always did when things were to much for her alone. Go to her brothers.

"What is his name?" She couldn't keep refering to him as 'the archangel'. He was a person, not a thing. Lucy and Fairy Tail had shown her what it ment to be truely free. They had set her free from her own inner hell. She had left behind her wish to pass from this world on angel wings. Here was a real live angel, and even his wings couldn't help him escape his hell.

"Zen Pradesh."

"Zen." Her eyes narrowed. "Zen, I promise you, as a celestial wizard. I will find you, and I will set you free."

XxXxXxXxX

To be continued.


	9. Chapter 9 Freedom

So... I'm not sure if I got the last part of this chapter quite right, but I tried. Sorry if you guys find it OOC. Like I said. I tried.

Fairy Tail isn't mine and neither are any of the Pradeshes. Why do I still have to say that?

XxXxXxXxX

Erik ran his fingers gently though his mate's hair, memorizing every detail of her face in the moonlight. When he had seen his sister return Crux's key he had known they would be leaving tonight. Any minute now Sorano would be tapping on the apartment door and he would be heading out. He could honestly say his family was about to do the most stupidly dangerous thing they had ever done.

He had put it off as long as he could, first using Sorano's lack of experience with her new magic, then their innability to travel out in the open. However... Sorano could now hold her own against most sparing partners and Macbeth hadn't had any trouble traipsing around Fiore on that mission he took with Freed, Wendy, and Kinana so he was out of excuses. Daphne had been excited when he told her his family would be going on a mission.

"It's Sorano's mission really, but all five of us are going. We'll head out on the pre-dawn train."

"Oh? I'm glad you guys are getting out. Should be good for you." It could also go desperately wrong and he knew it. "When will you be back?" He had managed a real smile and kissed her forehead.

"As soon as I possibly can." And that had been the honest to Mavis truth.

He had taken his time and made doubly sure to worship every inch her before she fell asleep. He should probably be asleep as well, but he didn't want to waste a single second of these last few minutes with his mate. They all knew that if this rescue mission went south it could take years for them to get home. While it was entirely possible that some of them could simply never come home from this that was an idea he refused to dwell on.

The expected tap on the door came and he leaned down to press one last kiss to her cheek. Should he wake her up and say goodby? Maybe. Should he have told her where they were going and why? Probably. Except if he did that she would want to go with them and there was no way in hell he was taking his precious kitten to fucking Pergrande. Hell to the fuck no.

"I'll be back." He whispered as softly as he could while forcing himself from their bed. "I promise." He felt the tingle of his mate's magic in his veins at the words. Hopefully the promise would actually help him get home quickly.

Hope, he thought as he headed for the train station, was something he hadn't had before Daphne. Hope and love and everything good in his world came from her. It wasn't just his life either. She had done just as he expected she would and made all his siblings lives so much better. They were all happy now. Sorano and Macbeth were finding meaning in life by helping people which he never expected to actually see.

He got slightly sad, sympathetic looks from Sorano and his brothers when he took his seat on the train. None of them needed words to know just what they were all leaving behind and risking being unable to return to. New siblings, friends, family, his mate, whatever the hell Freed was to Macbeth, even their newfound freedom was at stake here, but they were risking it all for some stranger they had never met. It was stupid and he was proud of them all for being willing, no, for wanting to do this.

He resisted the urge to growl when he caught the scent of the sixth person in the train car. He still held a rather strong grudge against the man for the past. He understood there had been outside influences, but still. He was a link in the chains that had caused him and his family a rather large anount of pain and agony.

"The fuck are you doing wandering around in the middle of the night without your cake-loving house-mother, Jellal."

"Mystogan if you please. I would rather my presence in the guild not be found out. For their sakes." The man stood and walked up the aisle to where they could clearly see him despite the dark hour.

"Fine. Why are you here?"

"I recognize the signs of a person keeping secrets. You have all been rather jumpy recently. I don't know what you are up to, but I'm here to ensure you don't do something to hurt those who have taken us in." The whole group tensed and Sawyer jumped to his feet.

"If you are accusing us of betraying Fairy Tail you had better slam on the brakes and throw it in reverse real fucking fast."

"I am not. Howe, if harm were to come to Erik it would hurt Lucy and Kinana, which would make Erza and Wendy cry and I just couldn't stand by and let that happen. The same goes for the rest of you." His eyes drifted to Sawyer and Richard. _Besides which I owe it to Wally and Millianna to see you safe and sound when they reach Magnolia._ As days went by Erik was hearing these little glimpses into Jellal more and more frequently. "So. Where are we going?"

"Pergrande." He gaped at Sorano for a moment.

"What! Are you insane? What could have possessed you to do such a thing?" Midnight chuckled.

"That's funny. You, accusing us of being possessed."

"I... That wasn't what I ment."

"I know. Still funny."

"So. Why are we going to that gods forsaken country?"

"We are freeing an angel." Jellal seemed to be waiting for Sorano to elaborate on that, though all he got was a determined stare.

"All right then." 'Mystogan' sat himself down just as the train began to move. Erik felt his stomach lurch at the movement and was seriously thinking of asking one of his siblings to knock him the hell out when he heard the sweetest voice in the world.

 _I don't know what you are hiding from me, Erik, but I trust you. Be careful and tell everyone I love them. Try to check in every once in a while if possible, so we don't worry to much._ Of course she knew they were up to something.

 _I love you, Daphne._

 _I love you too._

 _Jellal is with us. Tell Erza and Wendy I will keep him safe, and take care of Cu for me?_

 _You know I will._

"Daphne says to tell you guys she loves you. She figured out this is more than I told her it was. She knows 'Mystogan' has joined us too."

"You lied to your mate?" Erik scowled at the blunette.

"No you idiot." Honestly since they had mated he had found lying in general and especially to her next to impossible, not that he had been one for altering the truth much in the firat place. "I just only told her... A tiny bit of the truth. Think about it. What would they do if they knew where we were going?" Jellal cringed and Erik could hear him imagining Erza's reaction.

"I see your point."

"Tell Lucy we love her too." Sorano was smiling a little brighter than she had been.

"Yeah. She is our Polaris so we will be sure to find our way back."

"Fast as we can. It shouldn't take us that long."

"And we shall be sure to bring her love back safely! Oh yeah!" Erik smirked and shared their messages with Daphne.

 _I know they do. And I know you will. His stomach rolled again. Shall I sing to you?_

He nodded, his stomach making him instantly regret it especially since she wasn't there to see it. He curled up in a ball and hid his face in his arms as he heard her singing to him through their bond. He clung tight to the distraction until distance forced her voice to fade away. Noone saw the tears that escaped his eyes when silence fell, though quite honestly he wouldn't have been much bothered if they did see. He would miss his mate dreadfully and was not ashamed to admit that.

XxXxXxXxX

Pergrande was Zeref's necrotic asshole. The filth he was hearing both from inside people and even plainly on the street was making him want to gouge out his own ears with a rusty steak knife. Thankfully Macbeth's illusionary and reflector magics were keeping them from having to actually interract with people for the most part. The rest of the group was barely managing to keep Erik from poisoning people by the dozens and even hundreds.

The only real think keeping him from losing his ever loving fucking mind was the little parcel tucked in his pocket. He had only found it the day before they crossed the border. They had managed to find a lacrima they could borrow and had called the guild. Mira had passed the call almost instantly to Daphne. Somehow his mate kept people from hounding them for information on where they were and what they were doing and even kept Erza's lecture to a minimum. They had been caught up on the guild's activities and heard all the hilarious details of the twenty-four hour endurance race.

Right before they had been forced to end the call Daphne had asked him if he had checked the little pocket in his bag. He never packed anything in there, so he hadn't bothered to look in that particular pocket. As soon as the call ended he had pulled his bag out and searched. There, in the to small to bother with pocket, was a piece of blue fabric. The headband she had worn every day for almost a week before they left. All that time she had known he was leaving and had prepared this for him. Even now, as much as he had handled it since, it still smelled like her. Folded up inside the headband was one of her silver keys, Pyxis the compass. No matter where he was the compass spirit could guide him back to his Daphne. He had almost cried. Sorano had actually shed tears when she had seen it.

So now whenever he got the urge to kill someone or a whole town of someones and totally blow their cover he clutched the key tight in his pocket and thought of his mate. The further they got into the country, and the closer to it's heart where Sorano's angel was, the more frequently he needed that little trinket and the warm glow of celestial magic it let off when it touched his skin. He could have summoned Pyxis, and had been tempted to as a connection with his mate. The matebond allowed him to call Daphne's spirits and, while a gold key took an enormous amount of magic, the silver keys were managable for him. However opening an interdimentional gate was not the kind of magic even Macbeth could disguise so he wouldn't be doing that unless it was an emergency.

"These people are going full speed in reverse with no rear view mirrors." He just grunted at Sawyer's muttered statement and tried not to listen to what the speed mage had seen to make him say that. He had seen and heard enough in this poisonous, broken country to last him a lifetime.

He glanced around to ensure that they were not drawing any attention. Macbeth really was a genious and they couldn't have pulled off this mission without him. His skills with makeup had made them all look... Boring. Their clothes were chosen to avoid drawing attention and disguise the fit bodies and toned muscles that came with being an active wizard. Sorano had her shirt stuffed to make her look rather pregnant. A pregnant female was not worth notice for any reason as well as giving them a reason to be keeping her with them, dressing her properly, and caring for her health and safety. So far they had been largely ignored. He could only hope that held true for the rest of the trip.

XxXxXxXxX

It had taken long hours of waiting, days of hiding, and several carefully orchestrated accidents and dissapearances that they would not be talking about when they got home to gain access to Sorano's angel. They had seen The Dark Eagle fight once in that time and Sorano had nearly lost her cool and given them away when they had sent him barehanded against an armed and armoured berserker. She had hidden her face in Richard's shirt and Macbeth had closed his eyes and turned away from the sight. The rest of them had clenched their teeth and watched. He survived, though not without injuries, and they were determined to set him free before he was forced into the arena again.

"I say we snatch the angel, blow some shit the hell up, and make tracks. The sooner this place eats our dust the better." Sorano popped Sawyer upside the head.

"Would you guys stop calling him that!" She was hissing instead of yelling, but only because they were trying to be stealthy in order to avoid slow agonizing deaths. "His name is Zen. He is a person, not a thing." For some reason he heard his mate's voice when she said that and it creeped him out a bit.

"What about the other souls we would be leaving behind?" Erik shook his head at Jellal's question.

"We can't. We just aren't equipped to extract more than one person. We try to rescue anyone else we all die and so do they. You want to reform Pergrande? Come back later with an army." Jellal seemed to wilt a bit, but accepted the harsh fact. "Time is up. We do this like that opium job in Cedarwood."

"That was half a decade ago and we got caught!" Erik smirked at his family.

"Half a decade to learn to do it better then." A gaurd rounded the corner and he dashed forward. He slammed into the man as his family rushed past them, Jellal internally cursing because he had no fucking clue what was going on.

The first mistake Erik remembered making in Cedarwood was giving his opponent an option regarding whether he inhaled poison or not. This guy didn't get a choice. Before he even consiously grasped the fact that he had been attacked Erik had his nose plugged and was forcing the kiss of death into his lungs. He held him there until he lost conciousness, both preventing him from calling out and ensuring he never woke again to stab them in the back. He shoved the man into a dark corner and kept going.

Richard was smoothing the stone over his target when he passed him. Another mistake from the past avoided. Leave no way for the enemy to be found and rescued by allies. Macbeth stood near Sorano using his reflector magic to prevent blood from her still twitching target from staining the walls and floor and alerting anyone passing that a death had taken place.

He paused to exhale enough knockout gas to take out a whole cell block. Another mistake avoided. Never assume the enemies captives are on your side and will not betray your presence. He still hadn't seen Sawyer or 'Mystogan' so he hoped they were using their magic to prevent runners from escaping. He was passed by Richard, Sorano, and Macbeth while he double checked that the unconscious people would stay unconscious for a good long while.

They kept up a similar pattern until they came to Zen's cell. Seeing as how Erik had already gassed this block the males were all rather surprised to see him upright and alert. Sorano, however, was not surprised. She had already known that Archangels have a certain immunity to toxins and the like due to the healing nature of their holy magic. Whatever. It might make the whole plan go easier if they didn't have to carry the guy.

The snarl the man let out when Erik melted the lock and opened the cell door was not entirely human. Thankfully Erik himself wasn't entirely human and knew exactly what that sound ment. It loosely translated to 'Touch me and I will tear your arm off. If I'm going down you are sure as hell going down with me.' A sentiment Erik could totally understand and a threat the man was quite capable of carrying out. They had already seen just how deadly a cornered Archangel mage was even without using his magic.

"Look, man. We are here to bust you out." Erik slowly stretched out his arm and pushed up his sleave. The pale scar left behind from his own years in shackles stood out even in the low light. "No harm will come to you by our hands, you have my word." He felt his mate's magic rise in him again at his words and heard an answering magic in Zen. It was weird.

"Zen Pradesh." His head jerked around to stare at Sorano in obvious surprise. "The stars told me your name. They told me you were being held here against your will. Please. Let us help you. Let us set your free, Zen."

"Guys, guys!" Sawyer came skidding around a corner with 'Mystogan' on his heels. "We've got a problem."

"Our friend here is about to have a rather wealthy visitor. We have to go. Now." Erik looked at Zen who nodded. The whole group took off the way they had come. Having been where they had been they gave the man plenty of space. They knew how they had been when they first came to Fairy Tail. He was now where they had been then, quite possibly even worse. Personal space was a precious thing.

"I set timed charges. They should go off in about forty seconds. Shouldn't kill anyone who doesn't deserve it, but it will cause a hell of a distraction."

"You really are becoming obsessed with blowing things up. Natsu is a bad influence on you."

"Don't knock it till you try it." The explosives went off just as Sawyer predicted. It broke a lot of shit and threw a lot of dust in the air, but as far as Erik could hear no innocents were killed or even severely injured.

They made it all the way out of Skyreach with only one incident. The gaurd had lept out of the shadows and before anyone else could take care of him Zen cut the man in half with one of his wings. He screamed, there was blood, there was viscera, pieces went everywhere. Basically he managed to make every single mistake they had avoided making on the way in with just one blow. Thankfully they were rushing out instead of sneaking in now so it was less of a big deal.

It wasn't until they were well away from the city that they paused to deal with the cuffs on Zen. The magic surge that followed the release of each magic draining device was... Intense. His magic also caused a crazy reaction in Sorano's and Jellal's magic as well as the celestial magic Erik had running through his system as a result of his taking Daphne as his mate. It was wierd and Erik was highly disturbed. It also reminded him of the way his own draconic magic did shit without consulting his brain. The others didn't seem affected in the least by the wierdness. Sudden access to all his magic at once also made Zen more than a little magic drunk. He suddenly went from being pretty much a silent glaring machine to being something of a super horny three year old.

"Your hair is so pretty. Like starlight. Can I touch it?" He didn't wait for an answer, and Sorano would have given a magically wonky 'yes' anyway, so Erik was the one slapping his hands away.

"No. Don't touch her hair. Remember what happened last time you touched her?" The two had near lost their minds and were about to fuck each other right there in the road.

"Where are we going?"

"Fiore."

"Why?"

"Because that is where we live."

"How long will it take to get there?"

"Hopefully just a few days since we- Hey! Don't touch Jellal either!"

"But his magic feels good."

"See that just sounds wrong."

"Why?" The three not magically influenced members of their little group were doing absolutely nothing to help him. In fact they were only muffling their laughter because they were on the run fot their lives.

"It just does."

"Are we almost there?"

"Where?" The magical... Thing was making it hard for him to concentrate.

"Fiore."

"No. It took us almost a month to get here because we were sneaking. We are running now, but it will still take a while."

"We should fly!" The man looked up at the sky and nodded firmly. "Flying would be faster."

"Only you and Jellal can fly." That was the wrong thing to say because it put Zen's attention back on Jellal, who had been watching him with an intense curiosity the whole time. The grin Zen gave the man was downright seductive.

"You can fly. I saw you do it. Fly with me? How high can we go? I've never been high enough to see out of the collosium."

"Don't answer that! Nobody is flying anywhere! Somebody would see us for sure." Suddenly Sorano threw herself at Zen, wrapping her arms around him and glaring at Jellal.

"No! You can't have him!" The Archangel straight up purred at her.

"Oh, for fucks sake!" Erik reached out to pull his sister off the man only to have his hand knocked away with a black wing.

"Mine!" He could have screamed in frustration.

"You two are just..." He reached out again and was blocked. Again. He stomped his foot and growled at them, only to turn and growl at his brothers when they started laughing harder. "Stop it! Help me!"

"I c- Mavis! It's just so- so funny!" Macbeth was about to topple himself over he was laughing so hard. Erik decided he should just fall over already and shoved him. His brother didn't even defend himself. He just took the shove and fell and kept laughing. A purely sexual groan had him spinning back around fast enough to yank Sorano out of her tonsil hockey game before anymore clothes could come off. She and Zen both made sad whining sounds as Erik adjusted her dress.

"Here's the deal guys. How about Zen gives Sorano a piggyback ride?" That kept his wings In his back and them from fucking eachother in front of him while also letting them touch so he didn't have to fight them. That sounded like a good idea. "Put those wings away and you can carry her on your back." Zen actually pouted at him but relented. Erik watched the two closely for a while to make sure Sorano stayed on the man's back instead of shifting around where she needed to Not be.

Erik watched Sorano giggle and tell Zen stories about the guild and felt the distance between himself and his mate more keenly than ever. He missed Daphne. Daphne could fix this whole mess. Daphne fixed everything. She was like magical, sparkly, fruit-scented, fix-it spray. What the hell was he thinking? He was so done with whatever was wrong with them!

Zen suddenly jerked to a stop, eyes focused on the horizen. The happy, chattery three year old was nowhere to be seen. He was deadly serious and Erik had a bad feeling about that.

"What's wrong?"

"Wrong."

"That's what I asked."

"No. I mean something feels Wrong. Broken. Sick. Twisted. Like the world is bleeding. I don't know what it is, but... We have to go there. Now." Erik pulled Pyxis from his Pocket.

"Open, Gate of the Compass, Pyxis." When the little duck compass appeared he leaned down to look him in the eye. "Pyxis, what is in that direction?" The spirit made a quacking noise he was somehow able to understand. "Princess? What-"

"He referes to his keyholder." How the Archangel knew that Erik didn't know, but he was suddenly terrified.

"Daphne? No!" He lept to his feet. His Daphne was a trouble magnet. If the Archangel could sense the world bleeding from the same direction his mate was in... "Please no. Ah!" There was a sudden pain in his chest that had him dropping to his knees. He gasped for breath for a moment until it eased to a sharp ache.

"Erik? What is wrong? Has something happened to Polaris?"

"I- I don't know."

"Erza." Jellal seemed to have pulled himself out of his magical whatever, Sorano too for the most part. "If Lucy is in trouble then the others are as well. We have to go! If we fly we can be there in two days if we push it. I can carry the weight of one with me." Zen shifted Sorano around and shook out his wings.

"Go, Erik. Let Jellal take you. We will catch up. Go!" Erik nodded, and soon all three of his brothers vanished into the distance as they sped toward Magnolia.

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To be continued


	10. Chapter 10 Chaos

So... This chapter happened. It wrote itself and the Freed thing ran away from me a tiny bit. Have fun.

Fairy Tail is Hiro Mashima's and the Pradeshes belong to Desna.

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Freed had been sitting calmly on the second floor balcony drinking tea when it happened. He had been thinking of Macbeth, worrying about whatever secret mission he was on and hoping he and his team were staying out of the weather. Honestly since his friend took off most of Freed's time was spent worrying about him. Then suddenly Juvia and Kinana had begun screaming hysterically because every last member of Team Natsu had just vanished.

Of course Freed had lept into action immediately. As far as he was concerned Macbeth had entrusted him with protecting his 'sister' while he and Erik were on their mission. He still had the note he had found in his mailbox the morning after he left to valify that opinion. 'We all know Polaris gets into trouble and her team is nuts , so I'd appreciate it if you could watch out for her while we are gone.' Macbeth had asked and so of course he had done his best to oblidge up until this most dreadful moment when Miss Lucy had been snatched right from under his nose.

"What do you mean there was no spell?"

"There just wasn't! My darling Gray was right here and then he was gone! There was no magic at all!"

"She's right, Freed. I was looking right into Lu's eyes when she just vanished."

"It was the same with Erza." While Juvia was prone to extreme displays of illogical psychosis Levy and the Master were nnot. He would have to accept what they said as fact.

"Is anyone else missing?"

"H-happy and Natsu!" Freed felt his eye twitch. He already knew that, but Kinana seemed unable to get over the trauma of Happy dissapearing right out of her arms. "W-wendy and C-c-carla weren't in the guild. D-do you think they are g-gone too?"

"Easy there Rugrat. We will find them." *find them, gotta be somewhere, search everywhere. Whatever reassuring or paranoid, but ultimately pointless thing was going to be said next was cut off when the guild doors slammed open to admit 'Mystogan', Sorano, Erik, and an unfamiliar man with long, dark hair and enormous black wings.

"Daphne!" Freed got a good look at Erik's wide, slightly crazed eyes as he frantically searched the guildhall for the recently missing woman. "Where is she?" The slayer grabbed Bickslow by the shirt and shook the six and a half foot tall man like a rag doll. Why he expected the seith mage specifically to know Miss Lucy's location Freed wasn't sure. "Where is Lucy!"

"Dude! Calm the fuck down!" *chill, shaking daddy's brains out, wait a second. Erik backed away, eyes still searching frantically. 'Mystogan' was acrualky attempting to guide people away from the panicking man.

"E-erik?" Kinana tried reaching for her friend, but he backed away.

"Cu. I can't- I felt it. Like something yanked my heart out of my chest." His breathing was growing increasingly unsteady. "The angel said the world was bleeding. Two days. Two days we flew and when we got here... Nothing! Where were you! The whole town! Gone!" Their poison dragon slayer was quite obviously having some sort of break down.

"Erik." The winged man spoke bruskly. "You must calm yourself." That did not seem to be what Erik needed to hear, because instead of afraid and panicked he was now enraged.

"Calm myself? Calm myself he says. And why the fuck is that?" There was a sneer on the man's face and his words had a cruel twist to them. "Oh, I'll be calm." Burgandy scales rippled into being on his arms, the poison dripping fron his claws was sizzling when it hit the floor and eating holes in the wood. "I'll be calm when I Find My Mate! WHERE IS SHE!"

Now, when Freed had met Erik it had been at the party to welcome the man into the guild. Sure he was snarky and sarcastic, with a twisted, morbid sense of humor, but the man had always been relatively friendly. He smiled and laughed and played games with little Romeo. All of Fairy Tail knew he had been one of the most feared dark wizards in the country, but none of them had seen him that way. This crazed man snarling and exhaling noxious fumes into the air was not Fairy Tail's Erik. This was Cobra, and Freed was quite frankly at a loss as to what to do, because if he was understanding the situation right the slayer had lost the soul deep bond with his mate. As in Miss Lucy was no more.

The slayer's entire body suddenly jerked. The expression on his face slowly changed from deranged to confused before finally settling into a look of disbelieving awe. No one moved. No one spoke. There was a long, extremely tense moment before the slayer let out a whimper and turned his head toward the doors.

"I can feel her again. I can... I hear you, Daphne." Freed wasn't sure if that was good or bad, but he was desperately thinking of ways to deal with the slayer's poison if his mood swung back the other way again. Then, lo and behold, their temporarily missing blond came dashing through the doors Erik had entered so dramatically only a few seconds before. Erik lunged for her and when the two connected they seemed to crumple. The slayer curled around his mate with his ear pressed over her heart and just... started sobbing.

"I'm so sorry baby. I felt it too. I didn't realize until to late what it would do to us. I'm sorry. I'm ok. I promise you I'm ok. I'm right here. It's gunna be ok. You're home now, and so am I."

"What the fuck just happened man?" *what the fuck, that was crazy, doesn't make sense, where did Cosplayer go, please be done.

"I'm... Not sure." While everything seemed to have righted itself Freed felt a growing sense of unease. Miss Lucy continued speaking softly to Erik where they sat and no one wanted to disturb them for fear of setting him off again. Freed looked over to where Evergreen and Sorano were attempting to comfort a distraught Kinana, and then it hit him. He had been so caught up in his guiltmate's rapid descent into murderous insanity that he hadn't seen it before. "Sorano... where are the others? Where is Macbeth?"

"He's fine. When we realized something had happened to Lucy he told us to go and that they would catch up." Oh. Ok. He was alright. But... They had flown for two days. That would take almost astronomical amountsof magic energy. And where on earthland were they that was two days of flight away? Out of Fiore for certain. What had they been doing?

"Do we know you?" *do we, look familiar, seen you somewhere, maybe. Freed turned his attention to the winged stranger. Now that Bickslow mentioned it there was something about the man...

"Doubtful."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Sorano placed a hand on the man's chest, which Freed now noticed was bare, and smiled. "Introductions. Guys, this is-"

"Excuse me?" There was something cold in Lucy's voice as she stared down at her mate. "Surely I just heard you wrong and you didn't just say Pergrande." Silence fell over the guild. "You went to Pergrande. Without any backup or telling us where you were going. What..." Her eye was twitching. This couldn't be good.

The math suddenly clicked in Freed's mind and what followed would forever be known in the guild as 'that one time when Freed totally lost his shit'. Considering Erik had just come seconds from poisoning half the guild to death he thought they were being dramatic. However looking back Freed had to admit that there were a couple moments when he might have overreacted just a little bit. The first of those moments being when he transformed into his Absolute Darkness form and the second being when he yanked his sobbing guildmate from the arms of his recently presumed dead soulmate and slammed him against the wall with his claws around the man's neak.

"Two Days As The Crow Flies Would Put You In The Heart Of Pergrande. You Left MACBETH In PERGRANDE!" Another of those moments was when he grew so enraged by the lack of answer from the man he was strangling to death against the wall that he threw him through another wall. "How COULD You!"

"Stand down Demon!" Then came the moment where he challenged an undefeated gladatorial Archangel mage.

"Move ANGEL Or I Shall Destroy You As Well!"

"Freed, stop!" And the moment where he threatened to kill Macbeth's sister.

"Interfere And I Shall Feast On Your Heart!" That moment also happened to totally piss off the aforementioned Archangel who would have attacked him if the little moon maiden had not been actively shoving the man back while Lucy threw herself in front of Freed.

"Freed you need to calm down!"

"Do You Have Any Idea The Kinds Of Things That Could Happen To Him There? Did You Think Of That Before You ABANDONED Him In That HELLHOLE!"

Lucy tried to physically prevent him from going around her to get to her mate at which point he had another of those moments and struck Macbeth's other sister hard enough to send her crashing through the wall he had origionally pinned her mate to. This had both said recently murderously psychotic mate and the gladitorial Archangel in such a state that someone would have died if not for Bickslow's interference. There was a flash of green and the next thing Freed knew he was surrounded by concerned faces and feeling rather lost.

"Freed, man, you good now?" *good, done being crazy, so scary, friends again.

"I... What?" Evergreen huffed.

"He's back to his usual self."

"Freed." He looked over to see a rather contrite looking, completely sane eyed Erik. "I don't think anyone is more capable of handling themselves over there than Macbeth. He got six us all the way in without a single incident. I'm sure he can get the three of them out safely. I am sorry though. If I had known what he ment to you I would have handled the situation a bit differently."

"I'm not sure I understand." Erik looked at Bickslow who shook his head.

"He's fine. He:s just obtuse." *thick in the head, doesn't see, slow on the pick up.

"Demon, has your memory been damaged?" Freed narrowed his eyes at the winged man.

"My Name is Freed Justine. Kindly address me so. And my memory is intact." He shifted his attention to Erik. "My appologies. I believe I lost my temper." Lucy giggled and Sorano made a snorting sound.

"Lost his temper he says. Freed, you totally lost your shit."

"I owe you an appology as well Miss Sorano, and Miss Lucy as well." Sorano glared at him.

"What about Zen? You owe him an appology too?"

"I do. My appologies for losing control like that and threatening your wellbeing... Zen." Why did that name sound familiar? Bickslow was right. They knew this man from somewhere. Though he could have sworn those wings would caused instant recognition.

"You're Boscan, right?" Evergreen was tapping her fan on her chin. "Could we have met you on one of our visits over there?" That settled it. All three of them thought the man looked familiar. They knew him somehow. "No. I haven't been to Bosco since I was an infant." Freed glanced at Bickslow to find him staring at the man in wide-eyed... Horror? Awe? Like he was seeing a ghost, which really wasn't out of the realm of possibility with Bickslow, though he usually reacted differently.

"...Zen..." It was hearing Bickslow say the man's name that brought the memories to the surface. Bickslow had spoken that name before, but always with reverence reserved for the... dead. This man was dead, or at least he was supposed to be. Beleived to be? Freed very rarely cursed even within the confines of his own mind, but what the Hell was going on?

"No fucking shit!" Erik was grinning widely over the top of his mate's head. "We straight uo had no idea who he was when we went after him. Sorano was just bound and determined to rescue 'the last true angel' and wasn't gunna take fuck no for an answer."

"What... Where the hell have you been!" Bickslow started to reach for Zen, but stopped when Erik held out an arm and shook his head violently. "We thought you were dead! Dad's gunna just... Lose it!" *insanity, back from the dead, so happy, amazing.

"Oh. My. Mavis. You're That Zen!" Freed wasn't sure if the man knew who he was or not, but his reaction to Bickslow and Evergreen knowing who him was... Less than positive. He looked like he was about to run.

"Perhaps we should contact your family, Bickslow. Kaleb or Farron might be the best choice at this point." Zen's dark eyes locked onto him at his mention of the eldest Pradesh sibling. So he remembered his brother.

"Hold it!" Sorano threw her arms in the air. "You guys know Zen?"

"They do not. However... Bickslow... was adopted by my father afer Pergrande killed my mother and took me to the labs." There were gasps of shock from around the room.

"Woah, woah. I'm only Bickslow when I'm in trouble, or if you have a huge stick up your ass like the nerd here. Also there is an easier way to say that, dude. Bix is my brother. Try it. It's super easy." *Bix is my brother, Bix is my brother, come on, say it. Zen just gave Bickslow a highly gaurded and suspicious look.

"Wow." Lucy ran her hand over her face. "This has just been the craziest few days. Freed lost his mind, Bickslow's brother came back to life, Edolas, and Exceeds, and Lisanna-"

"Lisanna!"

"What is a Edolas?"

"What do you mean 'few days'?"

"Where is Juvia's beloved?"

"Yeah, where's Team Natsu?"

"What the hell happened to Erik?"

"And why the hell does Lucy suddenly look like she has been through some sort of battle?"

"I don't understand what's giving on!"

"Chill the heck out people! Let's just calm down and wait for the others to get here. Then we can all tell our stories." Freed had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

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To be continued.


	11. Chapter 11 Sawyer

Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. White Sea and the Pradeshes belong to Desna.

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hat the group rescuing Sorano's angel had not accounted for in their plans to escape Pergrande was the berserkers, genetically and magically mutated man-beasts controlled by a 'handler'. Merging animals of various sorts with the men the creatures used to be gave them extreme levels of strength, stamina, and speed as well as senses rivaling those of a dragon slayer and, in some cases, wings. The berserkers themselves were almost mindless killing machines guided and controled by the handler they were linked to.

Sawyer, Richard, and Macbeth had been hit by the first one about half an hour after the rest of their group had flown off toward Magnolia. Sawyer had almost lost a leg to the cat-lizard beast. Without Erik's poison to fight infection or Sorano's new healing spells he was thinking he might still lose the thing. He hadn't mentioned it to the others but it wasn't healing as it should and it had grown inflamed. He had felt the heat radiating from the flesh the last time he changed the bandage.

While a future with one leg or just plain dying from the infection bothered him, it didn't weigh on him nearly as much as the fact that he was useless to his brothers in this condition. Worse than useless. He was slowing them down. They spend far more time hiding and letting him rest than they did traveling, and when they were on the move they had to protect him from any enemies who managed to find the group.

He had his little explosives hobby to help out a bit. He had tinkered with such things even more since joining Fairy tail. He could make all sorts of booms. Big, little, fiery, not so fiery. He had even managed to make one with flames Natsu said tasted good. He was almost out of supplies though. He was seriously thinking about turning himself into a bomb and feeding it to the next pack of berserkers they came across. Going out with a bang suited him just fine if it protected his brothers.

Sure he had made new friends and would rather get home alive then dead, but... Richard had his brother traveling to join him. His real blood brother. Millianna was to young to remember Sawyer even was her cousin let alone actually care if he never came back. Macbeth had grown so close to Lucy as well as the green haired rune mage. Those two getting home was more important than his useless, one legged ass. Though he knew better than to tell them he felt that way. He had mentioned them leaving him behind once. They hadn't reacted well.

They were resting underground at the moment. They had discovered that if Richard took them deep enough the berserkers couldn't smell them. They couldn't stay down there though. Air was a limited resource and being this deep ment they had mud and water issues.

Avoiding water, getting fresh air, and determining where the hell they were and where the hell they were going all forced them to the surface rather frequently. They could travel underground a bit, but they had discovered the hard way that Richard had no way of telling when they were about to breach an underground water source.

"Air's getting thin, Rich. We'd better wake Beth and head up." Once more. The next time they rested he would clean out his pack and then... make sure to take as many monsters with him as he could.

"Agreed. The earth is becoming wet enough to lose stability as well." Sawyer forced himself to stand as Richard gently woke their sleeping brother. He leaned against the muddy wall and tried to ignore the throbbing pain in his leg as Macbeth traced a glowing purple rune on his forearm to help himself stay awake and alert. It was far from the first rune they had seen him use on this mission and Sawyer was extremely grateful to Freed for what he had taught their brother.

"How long was I asleep?" Sawyer and Richard both shrugged. "Hmm. Feels like...early evening. Three and a half hours, maybe three quarters." And that right there was why nobody bothered to keep time around Macbeth. His magic basically was a clock. Macbeth wrapped his arm in a dirty cloth to prevent the glowing rune from giving away their location in the fading light. "How is your leg?" Sawyer tried to smile to assuage the worry in those red eyes.

"I'm fine bro. It's still attached ain't it?" Macbeth rolled his eyes, but Sawyer could see his flippancy had the desired affect.

"Here." Macbeth pulled his arm over his shoulders. "Lean on me while Richard takes us up." One more way he was endangering them. Holding Sawyer up left Macbeth vulnerable when they came out. He also knew Richard would try to carry him after they were above ground, which he did. Soon as he had the ground leveled out the big man scooped him up and started walking.

They kept up a brisk walk for about an hour and a half with only a short water break. Then the berserkers hit, five this time. If Sawyer had been battleworthy they could have taken them. As it was. He was regretting the cowardice that had him delaying the making of his final bomb. He had just wanted to spend a few hore hours with his brothers. Now his brothers would die with him for his selfishness.

A loud boom shook the ground itself and the night was suddenly lit up with gold and silver light. Flashes of pale yellow filled the air with electricity and the shadows seeming to dance through the light despite how bright it was. There seemed to be... People all around them now. At least four of them. Not attacking them, but... Killing the berserkers. It made no sense. They were still in Pergrande. Why were these people fighting as their allies?

The light faded to a dim glow and Sawyer gaped at the berserkers, all dead on the ground, and the five people who had slain them. A tall blond woman was the source of the gold light, and a big man with long dark hair the source of the silver. There was another dark haired man, dressed all in black, smirking at them. There was a big ass green haired man with a big ass sword. One Sawyer recognized from pictures at the guild. Laxus Dreyer, exiled Fairy Tail wizard, S-class lightning dragon slayer. The Thunder Legion still considered him their leader.

"Laxus." Macbeth was using that cold, slightly happy voice he used to use when he was Midnight. It always creeped Sawyer out when he did that. "You are here...why?"

"Cuz apparently risking your wellbeing is reason enough for Freed to break full demon in the fucking guildhall."

"Freed," Macbeth dropped the creepy voice. Thank Mavis. "Did...what?"

"You're injured." The big dark-haired one was staring intently at him where he sat sprawled in the mud where Richard had dropped him. "We should go before they come back. We can talk about this after we get up."

He stepped toward him and Macbeth's eyes flashed red. He threw his hands out and little demonic things began to crawl out of the ground. He wasn't at full power, but it was close enough for his illusions to be pretty damn scary. All five of the newer arrivals took battle stances. Those weilding light magics began to glow, or in Laxus's case crackle.

"And what reason have we to trust you?" Aaand creepy, dramatic voice was back. Laxus growled at them.

"You fucking know who I am!"

"Yes. The traitor. Freed Justine is loyal to a fault and so very trusting. You however... I know not." If the situation weren't so dangerous Sawyer would probably mock at Macbeth's dramatics. The one in black dropped his weapons and raised his hands. When he spoke it was with a smooth, coaxing, singsong voice.

"Come on now handsome. Would we have killed of the big uglies if we ment you harm?" Macbeth sneered at him. That probably would have had a greater affect if he wasn't covered in mud. "Don't be like that. You trust Bixy Boy yeah?"

"Bickslow is a brother in arms. Oh Yeah! And a beloved comrade!"

"Then there is no reason not to trust us." He pointed at himself and the two glowing people. "Brother, brother, sister. All good!" The demonic illusion began to fade away. "And we're here for Zen's sake." And trust nullified. Only Pergrande would know about them rescuing Zen. Sawyer yanked a small bomb from his pack, the demons came back with friends, and the earth began to shift under them. The smooth talker vanished, only to reappear right behind Sawyer with his hand covering the one holding the bomb. "Woah. That's a strong reaction. Let's not blow us all away shall we?"

"What baby brother failed to mention." The blond woman said, rolling her eyes. "Is that Zen is a brother too. He's safe, by the way. At Fairy Tail." Macbeth tipped his head to the side.

"And the world bleeding? Polaris?"

"Interdimensional portal." The dark haired man spoke calmly. "Your celestial wizard passed through the portal. When she left this world it was as if her mate bond with Erik was severed. She has returned and they have recovered." That was what they needed. They all three relaxed and released toeir magic. Sawyer used his thumb to flip the pin around and render his little bomb harmless. And yes he was just that good. He had practiced that move. A lot. The big greenhaired man eyed where the little demons had been and grinned.

"Those were totally harmless weren't they?" Macbeth just gave him this creepy little one sided smile.

"We need to get that infection seen to before it turns septic." The big man who had first noted his injury strode forward. "My name is Cristoff. I'm a healer."

"Infection!" Macbeth gasped and rushed toward him. "Why didn't you say anything?" Sawyer waved him away as Cristoff picked him up.

"There was nothing you could do about it. So no point. I was slowing us down enough as it was." The blond woman latched onto Richard's shoulder.

"Somebody grab Bluffy." Macbeth made an offended noise as Laxus grabbed his shoulder. The big green haired man grabbed onto Cristoff's shoulder and then the whole world lit up and tilted. When everything settled again they were on the deck of a flying contraption similar to that Cristina thing they had blown up their last day as the Oracion Seis, and there were people everywhere.

They were bustled down to the infirmary by Cristoff and a brunette named Xally who was apparently another sister. The mud covered Macbeth was shoved into a shower. He would have stayed with Sawyer, but the woman threatened to strip him right there and wash him with her own magic. It was one of those Lucy type threats you took seriously without thinking about it, because somehow you just knew she ment it.

Sawyer was shocked at how well and how quickly Cristoff was able to heal his leg. He was told he still needed rest, but his leg would be one hundred percent in no time. Now that they were safe, his leg was on the mend, and they were surrounded by Bickslow's very large family he was feeling quite relieved that he had been to selfish to go out with a bang. It would have totally blown.

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To be continued.


	12. Chapter 12 Mira

Shout out to Nightmare Senshi for not only her Hestor, but her inspiration that birthed Edolas Erik. The Pradeshes are Desna's awesomeness. Fairy Tail is Hiro Mashima's creation.

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Mira smiled broadly at her newly returned sister as they loaded trays to take down into the library. The days after Edolas had been emotional and chaotic. First there had been Erik's meltdown, then Freed had totally lost his shit. She had her suspicions as to why the normally composed rune mage had attacked their guildmates, but she didn't have proof. Yet.

They had lost Mystogan. Apparently the loner was a prince in some alternate reality. Mira didn't really understand all the specifics, but it had somehow returned Lisanna to them so she was happy. Her sister had some adjusting to do, and her magic was way behind, but she was whole, hearty, and alive.

Zen. Now there was a whole kettle full of fish. The Shady Five and Fairy Tail's new Mystogan had risked their lives and freedom to rescue the man on what was essentially a rumor. Erza, Wendy, and Kinana had been hovering in a rather extreme manner since their return. Lucy was still a bit pissed at Erik over that, and Freed was... brooding, which was an odd look on him.

Bickslow was over the moon that his long presumed dead brother had been returned to life. He was less thrilled over how immensely traumatized the archangel mage was. As long as you gave the man plenty of space, didn't move to suddenly or make any loud noises, or come up behind him you almost didn't notice. Well, unless you asked him to interact socially on basically any level, or asked him questions about the past. The way he reacted to certain foods could be a bit scary too. He had also threatened to eat Happy in a way that said he totally ment it.

So... Scratch that. It was really obvious that he was a mess. That was why he was in the library with only a select few individuals while they waited for his family to arrive. It was taking a bit because they had agreed to go fetch the three missing Fairies before coming to Magnolia. Until they got here the group in the library was basically limited to no more than the Thunder Legion, Levy, Gajeel, Pantherlily the newest Exceed in the guild, Lucy and Erik, and of course Sorano who was all but glued to the man. Granted Zen seemed equally as attatched to the moon maiden.

The rest of the guild had been soundly informed by Erik that whatever was going on in the library was "none of your damn business". The Thunder Legion taking him flying twice a day? Also none of the guild's business. The reasoning behind their periodic excursions to the training grounds and the rigorous sparing matches that took place there was also apparently none of their business. By rigorous Mira ment downright vicious. The first match had been...dramatic.

Due to both Erik's insistance that Zen was "insane levels of badass" and the Thunder Legion being accustomed to sparing among themselves they had all three stepped onto the training field against him. Sixty seconds later healing magic had been needed in a major way and the whole guild had been made aware of the fact that Zen apparently didn't really get what a friendly spar was all about. Thankfully Wendy was on hand and Zen himself had some healing magic. Apparently the group in the library had hashed that out, because Zen's next spar against Erza had seemed far less...deadly.

"Drinks are all ready if the food is, Mira!" Mira placed a large bowl of fruit salad on her tray and led her sister toward the library. Zen treated fresh friut with an intense level of reverence so she made sure to include plenty with his meals. As they drew close to the table where Lucy, Erik, Sorano, Zen, Bickslow, and Freed sat she could hear Lucy's voice raised in apparent aggrivation.

"...just terrible. You're safe with me at least. I have Erik to keep me from going looney after all, and I can promise you right here I won't ever be making you do anything you don't actually want to do."

"I...greatly appreciate that." Zen sounded genuinely thankful which struck Mirajane as odd. She really did adore Lucy to peices, but she couldn't see how the little blond could force that immensely powerful chunk of sexy man meat to do anything even with the added magic she had gained when she mated with Erik.

"I'm not sure how much weight my promise holds since my magic changed, but I promise the same thing. I promise to never use your magic against you. We should still keep a non-celestial chaperone around just in case. I don't have a mate to lessen the pull even a bit." Since Sorano was curled up against Zen's side when Mira came around the corner and saw them the whole conversation made even less sense.

"Don't you worry Moon Ninja. We'll be arround basically all the time anyway." *yeah no worries, help you be good, protect Zen, makes you silly too, protect Moon Ninja. Mira was pretty sure Zen didn't need protected from much of anything, quite the contrary, but whatever.

"We brought lunch everyone!" The conversation stopped and five of the six wizards at the table turned smiles toward her and her sister. Zen's smile was small but it was there. Freed... continued to brood, which was really starting to freak Mira out. "Hope everyone's hungry!"

"When are we not hungry, Mira?" *always hungry, munchies, lots of eats, growing boys. Sorano scoffed at the seith mage.

"Speak for yourself, you bottomless pit. Lucy and I eat like ladies"

"I don't know. My metabolism seems to have increased since we mated." Bickslow grinned widely at Lucy's comment.

"It takes a lot of energy to have as much s-" Erik snatched a grape out of the salad she had just set on the table and lobbed it at Bickslow. That yanked Freed out of his brooding state real fast. He lept to his feet and hissed at the rest of them.

"Not. In. The. Library. You... Heathens." Erik pointed at Bickslow.

"He started it." Lucy giggled, but said nothing.

"And so you resort to throwing things and pointing fingers like an infant?"

"Personally I totally skipped my childhood and reserve the right to be as immature as I want whenever I want." Freed glared at Lucy as though this was somehow her fault.

"What?"

"Is he this bad at home?" She grinned evily and Erik covered her mouth before she could even open it.

"Don't you dare Dahpne. Not a word. I heard that." The blong giggled hysterically behind his hand and he rolled his eyes. "Now see what you've done Think Demon? You broke my mate."

"She's Your mate," Sorano waved a hand at them. "She was already broken." Zen had his head tipped just slightly to the side and seemed to be studying their interactions intently.

Mira was a but concerned about the ex gladiator learning to interact socially from this group. Sorano and Erik were still adjusting themselves and had a tendency to be...vicious. Bickslow was a clown who never took anything seriously. Freed took everything far to seriously and had trouble understanding most people on his best day. Lucy...Lucy had voices in her head. She seemed well adjusted, but Mira knew how much hearing your magic talk to you in your head affected a person. Then again... Thinking about the other people in the guild he could have chosen worse people to learn from.

"That's funny!" Lisanna laughed aloud as though they had said something ridiculous. "Just... The idea of Lucy somehow being negatively influenced by Erik! It's to funny." Erik's face grew increasingly more twisted and horrified by the second.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me."

"Oh, this I've gotta hear." Lucy leaned toward Lisanna and grinned. "I met Lucy Ashley. Girl was crazy. I can only imagine what Erik was like." Erik let out a pained groan. "Do tell Lis."

"He was the sweetest man I think I've ever met. Maybe even sweeter than Big Brother. Hated fighting and violence. He always used to say 'We need to calm down, talk, and hug this out guys.'" Sorano had disolved into hysterical giggles. "He was never directly involved in the war against wizards on either side, but he used to let us hide in his kennel sometimes of one of us were cornered near him."

"Wait. Kennel? He raise dogs or something?" *puppy lover, so many puppies, woof woof. Erik's eyes flew wide, but before he could say anything Lucy had wrapped both arms around his head to keep his mouth shut. He struggled, but there was no way for him to get free without harming his mate.

"Quick, Lis! I can't hold him long!"

"Umm. He was a world renound breeder of miniature cuddle-corns. You could always recognize his stock by the bright pink color of their coats." Erik struggled a bit harder. "He adored his sparkle babies!"

"Sparkle babies!" Sorano was gasping words around her laughter. "P-pink! Cuddle- Oh Mavis!"

"Dare I ask," Well at least Freed wasn't silently brooding anymore. "What exactly is a miniature cuddle-corn?" Erik thrashed and yanked at Lucy's arms.

"They're these cute little unicorns that are just the right size to scoop up and cuddle! They are so precious! Their little horns are soft and they make the cutest squeaking sound when you squeeze them!"

"Shit! Run, Lis!" Lisanna did right before Erik broke out of Lucy's hold and lunged for her. Lucy managed to catch him and tackle him to the ground before he made it far. Mira calmly unloaded the rest of her tray before heading after her sister.

"You two are going to have the cutest, feistiest babies!" Erik and Lucy choking and sputtering was the last thing she heard as she left the room. For all their protesting she knew for a fact that those two went at it like bunnies and it was only a matter of time before Lucy made her a godmother.

It was almost an hour later that an unnatural silence fell over the guild. Mira didn't even have to glance around to find the cause. Macbeth, Sawyer, and Richard were back. That wasn't what brought about the silence though. It was the people with them. While they had been expecting guests this was...a whole damn pantheon's worth of gods, or demigods at least.

Mira had seen pictures of Kaleb, Emzadi, and Cristoff Pradesh. The pictures hadn't done them justice. Arman and Farron looked enough like Zen to identify them pretty quickly. Mira had suspected his good looks were caused by his magic, but not so. There were a whole lot more than just Pradeshes in that group though.

They had been expecting two sisters, four brothers, and Ambassodor Pradesh. Mira's quick head count was at three unfamiliar females, a redhead, a blond, and a brunette. There were four men she couldn't identify anf only one of those could be Bickslow's youngest brother. And then there was...

"Laxus." Master Makarov's rough voice pretty much summed up the reason for the guild's silence.

"Don't get yourself all wound up old man. I'm here for my kin. Ain't got nuthin to do with the rest of your brats. Where's Bix?" Makarov didn't answer, but Natsu did.

"They locked themselves in the library and Luce won't let me in."

"Pretty sure you're the primary reason the rest of us are locked out Smoke For Brains."

"You wanna go Ice Princess!"

"Anytime you think you're man enough Flamebrain!" Macbeth and Laxus both ignored the forming brawl and led the rest of the group toward the library. There were a few interesting looks from the Boscan's, but Mira guessed they were in to much of a hurry to see Zen and Bickslow to give the odd behavior of the Fairy Tail wizards any of their time or energy. Though the sneer the smallest, silver-haired man gave Natsu and Gray looked like it took a lot of energy. It wasn't until the large group was gone that Mira had the thought that someone should have warned them about some of Zen's...quirks. Oops.

While the library group really had just finished lunch Mira had no idea when their guests had last eaten. Proveding refreshments was only proper. Besides, there was no way she was missing out on whatever juicy thing was going on in the library. She quickly stacked a tray full of finger sandwiches and loaded another with drinks and headed toward the juicy gossip, er, potentially hungry guests.

What she found was... Not what she had expected, and yet it maybe should have been. The people in the room seemed to be in some sort of standoff. Those who had already been in the room joined by the three recently returned Fairy Tail wizards versus the Boscan guests. How it had started Mira couldn't begin to guess, but most of the people in the room were quite obviously trying not to laugh at the two who were apparently trying to finish it.

Zen's back was against the wall and both his arms were wrapped around a struggling Sorano. Master Kaleb Pradesh and the silver haired sneering wizard were facing them in an almost identical stance. Mira was convinced it was only the strength and patience of the two delicious men that was keeping the two pale wizards from strangling each other. As it was they were hissing and spitting insults that made little sense to Mira coming into the middle of the... conversation as she had.

"He does not want you and never will!"

"Do you seriously think I'm such a barbarian as to not understand that!"

"You keep your greedy, power hungry paws off my angel!"

"Your motives are not mine!" There was this little furry creature that kept bouncing around near Sorano's feet. It looked almost like it kept bouncing off of her. Macbeth's magic probably.

"I set him free and I will die to keep him that way!"

"I wasn't the one rubbing my magic all over him like a wanton Stellan whore when we walked in!"

"Says the man who asked to sink his claws into him almost the moment he walked into the room!"

"Do you see his abs? Any boscan would ask the same."

Sorano gave a shreik of outrage and began to glow. Zen groaned and tightened his grip on her. That seemed to be some sort of signal for Lucy and Erik to get involved.

"Sorano! Your magic!" Erik lept in front of her and shook her shoulders a bit.

"Zen! Look at my eyes! Can you focus? We good?" Lucy reached out and physically turned the man's head so he looked at her. Sorano's magic vanished almost instantly and she turned herself around in Zen's arms.

"I'm sorry! Are you ok? I didn't mean to!" Zen tucked her under his chin and the two of them just... Stood there. Shaking a bit. Mira felt like she had missed something extremely important. The little fuzzy creature crawled up into the sneering man's arms and he held is close and stroked it for all the world like a villain in a bad comedy movie. He even leaned down and nuzzled it like it was a baby.

"You guys sure you don't need to seperate?" Mira thought it was pretty obvious they wanted to stay together, but seeing as how Lucy wasn't one for stupid questions she figured she must have reasons for asking. Zen shook his head.

"I'm ok. She... We're ok."

"Trust me, Daphne when they lose it you'll know." Sorano made a bit of a growling sound from where her face was buried against Zen's chest.

"Shut the fuck up, Erik."

"I just wanna go on the record as having pointed out," The lean darkhaired man spoke in a smooth, rich voice that had Mira's inner demons purring. "That if you two had just let that cat fight happen it could have been super sexy."

Mira blinked, thought about the two previously hissing wizards together, and she could see it. Prickly, hissing, gorgeous moon babies! They would be so pretty! She got so excited she didn't even notice her tray being plucked from her hands or the fact that she didn't hit the ground when she passed out.

She woke up to the sound of murmering voices. The calm was disorienting. Her head was resting on something soft which was also disorienting. She heard at least three seperate conversations taking place. One was between Zen and, she presumed, his family. On one end of the room she heard Lucy, Erik, Sorano, and the man who would make beautiful babies with her, on the other Laxus and the Thunder Legion. Her curiosity over how Laxus had come to be here had her focusing on that conversation first.

"Stop hovering over him like a fucking mother chicken, Freed. He's fine. Was fine when we found him aside from a bit of dirt."

"I'm not hovering." She could hear Evergreen's signature scoff so she must have returned to the guild while Mira was unconcious.

"Freed. Dude. You are." *so hovering, hover chicken, bock bock bock, helicopter chicken.

"I am not ho-"

"Freed." Macbeth's soft voice sounded a bit... scolding. "You are hovering. I don't mind, but you are. I really am ok."

"You're tired."

"He fucking slept the whole trip here. How could he still be tired?"

"He doesn't sleep at night Laxus, and I seriously doubt you all let him get adequate rest during the daylight hours."

"Cris helped. He even managed to keep me asleep through the first full night aboard the ship."

"You still need to rest."

"Later. Once this rune wears off."

"You're... using them?"

"Of course." Well. As cute as that was she wasn't gaining any real information from that conversation. She continued to fain sleep and turned her attention to her newest ship.

"If contact makes it worse why do you keep rubbing your self all over him?"

"Do you really have to ask that? Boscan?" There was a hissing sound Mira thought was from the male and some laughter from Erik.

"Don't be such a bitch, Sorano. I hear you both. It's not about magical compulsion shit. You two just like to cuddle." Lucy giggled.

"Is that really why you do it? Or is he just projecting?"

"Ouch. You doubt my truthfullness? Some mate you are." Lucy giggled again.

"Honestly, who would blame you? Access to that? I'd cuddle aggressively too?"

"You? Cuddle?"

"He cuddles." A new voice said. "Hestor what are you all plotting over here? All of you have this... cackle echoing in your minds." Hestor made a happy humming sound.

"We are going to take over the world." The new voice gave a longsuffering sigh.

"While that sounds like fun it's not what we are doing Master Kaleb. We were discussing how to limit the effects of the compulsion on Zen and the celestial wizards around him." Compulsion to what? Mira was extremely curious now.

"It strengthens with exposure to active magic does it not?" No one answered so Mira guessed they had nodded. "Then I am fairly certain I can work something up to block the magic, or at least mute the pull."

"Really!" Sorano sounded elated.

"Kaleb is a genious with lacrima technology."

"He's being nice." Lucy stage whispered. "I'm worried." Hestor hissed again.

"Take your sanctimonious bullshit and shove it up your ass you bouncy blond-"

"Hestor. Please." Mira was fairly certain Kaleb had covered the man's mouth to make him stop insulting Lucy. A good idea too, because Erik was likely to get a bit... murderous. Erik started laughing.

"I like him, Daphne. Can we keep him?"

"No." Kalab sounded quite emphatic. "This one is mine. You already have that one."

"Yeah, but she's my sister. Makes it less fun."

"No one is Keeping me!"

"We aren't toys for you assholes to play with!" The two wizards in question seemed able to agree upon nothing other than the fact that Zen was sexy and the rest of the world insulted them to the core of their beings. Maybe their babies would be more scary than beautiful. Mira could tell this conversation had moved on from useful information so she moved on as well.

"Whatever you need, Zen, we will make sure you get it. We know you need time and a certain amout of space. That is understandable. Whether you take that time here with your new friends or you come home with us is up to you. They have earned your trust already while we are still practically strangers and we understand that as well. Just know that you never have any reason to hesitate to reach ut to us. We will be here."

"Thank you...father." Now normally Mira was not shy about eavesdropping. At all. This conversation seemed to have an extra personal feel to it though so she decided to leave it alone. She blinked her eyes open to find herself staring into the most gorgeous night sky eyes she had ever seen.

"Are you finished pretending to sleep?" The fact that her head was in Cristoff Pradesh's lap was just to much for her brain and she passed back out.

XxXxXxXxX

To be continued.


End file.
